Ocean Treaty: After a decade of negotiations, a historic agreement is achieved

By: Andreea Dibo, Health & Environment, The Pawprint

After ten years of talks, nations have secured a historic pact to safeguard the oceans. Years of negotiations have been stalled due to divergent views on funding and fishing rights.

To protect and restore marine life, the High Seas Treaty seeks to turn 30% of the seas into protected zones by 2030.

After 38 hours of negotiations, the deal was finalized on Saturday night at the UN’s New York headquarters.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the most recent international accord on ocean preservation, was signed in 1982, 40 years ago.

Just 1.2% of the high seas, which are international waterways where all nations have the right to fish, ship, and conduct research, are currently protected.

Climate change, overfishing, and maritime activity have all put marine life that exists outside of these protected regions under danger.

The amount of fishing allowed in these new protected zones, which were established by the treaty, as well as the paths of shipping channels and exploration activities like deep sea mining (the removal of minerals from a sea bed 200 meters or deeper), will be restricted.

The accord must be formally adopted at another meeting, and there will be a lot of work to be done before the treaty is put into effect.