Why the New Treaty Matters for the High Seas
- Anonymous
- 14 hours ago
- 3 min read
The high seas cover nearly two-thirds of the world’s oceans and half of Earth’s surface, serving as vital biodiversity hubs and migration routes, yet they have long lacked strong governance. After two decades, the High Seas Treaty has been ratified by 60 countries, with Morocco’s triggering its entry into force in January 2026. The Treaty establishes marine protected areas, conservation measures, and fair benefit-sharing for marine genetic resources. This marks a turning point in global ocean governance, aiming to regulate the exploitation of critical minerals and genetic materials while protecting biodiversity.
Why This Matters
Businesses: Develop policies for sustainable use of marine resources across the supply chain, in line with new regulations, to reduce regulatory, financial, and reputational risks.
Investors: Integrate ocean-related risks and opportunities into investment strategies to safeguard long-term returns and support innovation in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and clean energy.
Governments: Strengthen global cooperation and governance of the high seas, ensuring equitable benefit-sharing from marine resources while protecting biodiversity and economic stability.
What are the High Seas?
The high seas, the huge areas of the ocean that don’t belong to any single country, cover nearly two-thirds of our global oceans and almost half of the Earth’s surface. They are home to an estimated ten million species, many still undiscovered. These waters serve as vital migration corridors for whales, tuna, and other important species, and they contain some of the largest reservoirs of biodiversity and natural resources that are essential for climate stability and economic prosperity. Yet despite their importance, the high seas have long been weakly regulated.
What is the High Seas Treaty?
After almost two decades of negotiations, governments, scientists, and ocean advocates have secured the High Seas Treaty. On September 19, 2025, Morocco became the 60th country to ratify the agreement, which means the Treaty will officially enter into force in January 2026. This landmark achievement creates, for the first time, a framework to protect and sustainably manage biodiversity in international waters. The Treaty establishes a mechanism for creating marine protected areas (MPAs) and introduces tools to conserve ecosystems, while also ensuring that the benefits from marine genetic resources are shared fairly among nations.
What are Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)?
Marine Protected Areas, or MPAs, are designated zones of the ocean managed through legal or effective measures to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems. They are essential for keeping marine environments healthy and resilient, while supporting biodiversity, climate stability, and economic development. MPAs also play an increasingly important role in regulating the use of marine genetic resources, which hold enormous potential for medicine, biotechnology, and technological innovation, as well as in promoting transparency in high-seas activities such as deep-sea mining.
Why Morocco’s Ratification Matters?
Until now, governance of the high seas has relied on a patchwork of regional fisheries agreements, shipping conventions, and scattered marine protected areas. This fragmented approach left critical gaps in protecting marine biodiversity and often failed to ensure that developing countries benefit from discoveries made in international waters. Morocco’s ratification as the 60th signatory marks a turning point. By crossing this threshold, the Treaty will enter into force, paving the way for a more unified and effective approach to global ocean governance.
Why the High Seas Treaty is Important?
The high seas contain some of the most valuable resources on the planet. Critical minerals needed for renewable energy technologies and marine genetic materials used in pharmaceuticals and biotech are just two examples of assets that companies and countries are increasingly seeking to exploit. Because no single nation has authority over the high seas, it has been difficult to regulate such activities or to limit their harmful impacts. The High Seas Treaty provides a global framework to close this gap, ensuring that rules apply consistently to all states and vessels and that protection of biodiversity goes beyond national or regional efforts.
What Comes Next?
The first meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the Treaty’s decision-making body, will take place within a year of the Treaty’s entry into force. There is still a lot of work to be done before the meeting—deciding how the Treaty will operate in practice and setting up governance structures to establish financial mechanisms. Only with these systems in place can the Treaty move from being a landmark agreement on paper to becoming an effective international instrument that truly protects the global ocean.