The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction agreement (BBNJ) is a global treaty covering all ocean outside countries' exclusive economic zones (EEZs). It was signed by 145 countries, ratified by 81, and came into force on January 17th 2026. America has not signed up to it. Greenpeace has described the treaty as "the biggest conservation victory ever". President Joe Biden's administration was key in helping draw it up.
International waters account for 61% of the ocean, 43% of Earth's surface and, with an average depth of 4,100 metres, two-thirds of its biosphere. Possibly millions of species inhabiting this space, from microbes to unknown bottom-dwelling fish, are yet to be documented.
Marine genetic resources. The treaty establishes a framework for equitable sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources in the high seas—potentially valuable for pharmaceuticals and scientific documentation. Smaller, poorer signatories are guaranteed a share of benefits, including through the transfer of knowledge and technology.
Environmental assessments. Signatories are obliged to carry out robust environmental assessments for any planned activity that might affect the ocean's workings. A "clearing-house mechanism" is envisaged for sharing findings and promoting technology transfer.
Marine protected areas. The treaty creates a process for establishing a network of large, interconnected marine protected areas (MPAs) on the high seas. Scale and connectivity are considered crucial, given the distances many species travel for food or breeding, and to boost resilience in ecosystems under stress from a warming climate.
Of 1,320 populations of 483 species in one study, 82% are being removed faster than they can repopulate. Seventeen regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) manage fish stocks, but with a few notable exceptions (such as in the western and central Pacific) they have done a poor job. The spawning population of the bluefin tuna has fallen by four-fifths in the western Atlantic and by two-thirds in the eastern Atlantic in recent decades.
Key destructive practices include gill-netting, long-lining (which produce devastating bycatch of slow-reproducing species like sharks, dolphins and turtles), and bottom-trawling (which ploughs the seabed using heavy rollers and steel plates, destroying ecosystems that can take centuries or millennia to recover). Bottom-trawling is especially damaging around seamounts—thousands of underwater mountains collectively equivalent in area to all of Europe, which serve as biodiversity hotspots.
Unlicensed "dark" fleets and other illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing are a further concern. Huge Chinese dark fleets in the Pacific and Indian oceans, often right next to countries' EEZs, suck up squid, a vital prey species for many migratory fish.
The vaquita porpoise of the eastern Pacific is on the point of extinction, largely as a consequence of bycatch.
Peter Thomson, the UN secretary-general's special envoy for the ocean, counts a dozen MPAs ready to be put in place, including: the Salas y Gomez and Nazca Ridge (east of Easter Island); the Lord Howe Rise (an underwater plateau extending south-west from New Caledonia); and the Emperor Seamount Chain (north-west of Hawaii). In the Atlantic, west African countries are interested in protecting the Canary and Guinea Currents. Discreet discussions are under way with Norway and other fishing states about enhancing protection near the Antarctic Peninsula.
One concern is the fishing industry's interest in going after mesopelagic fish, the most abundant vertebrates on Earth, which inhabit a "twilight zone" below 200 metres. Research shows life in that zone is a crucial regulator of the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide.
A conference of parties later in 2026 is necessary to enable the treaty's full operation.
Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny.