High Seas Treaty Passes 100 Ratifications

The High Seas Treaty now has 100 parties. Six more countries ratified it during this week's UN General Assembly: Germany, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe, Canada, Australia and Brunei Darussalam. The agreement needed 60 ratifications to enter into force, and it took effect in January.

Formally the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, usually shortened to BBNJ, the treaty is the first legal framework for protecting biodiversity across the roughly half of the planet that lies outside any country's waters. Its first Conference of the Parties, in January 2027, is expected to start deciding where the first high-seas marine protected areas will go.

Why the number matters

The High Seas Alliance, a coalition of conservation groups, noted that the membership now spans every region, from major maritime powers to small island states and a number of landlocked countries. It stressed that only ratifying countries can vote on the treaty's decisions, so those that have not ratified will have no seat at the table when the rules for nearly half the planet are written.

Alliance director Rebecca Hubbard said 100 marks real momentum but warned that parties need to arrive at the first conference ready to engage, because how they act there will set the tone for every meeting that follows. Greenpeace Australia Pacific called Australia's ratification historic and urged the government to turn it into large ocean sanctuaries, pointing to pressure from industrial fishing methods such as longlining and bottom trawling. Dr. Aristide Takoukam Kamla, founder of the African Marine Conservation Organization, said African ratifications show the continent intends to help shape ocean governance, and that for coastal communities in Central and West Africa a protected high seas means healthier fisheries and a more secure future.

What it could mean for divers

For most recreational divers, reefs and wrecks sit inside national waters, so little will change soon. The treaty matters more for expedition and liveaboard trips that cross international waters, including remote seamounts and migration corridors for sharks, whales and turtles. Protected areas on the high seas could eventually bring new rules on where and how vessels operate, and, if they work as intended, healthier populations of the pelagic species many divers travel to see.

The details are still to come. The locations, boundaries and management of the first protected areas will be negotiated from 2027, and how the rules will be enforced far from any coastline is still to be worked out.