The Hidden Fight Behind the High Seas Treaty

0:00 Everybody says they want to protect the ocean until the conversation turns to money, power, and control. This is the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, your weekday ocean news update. If you care about staying informed on the ocean every weekday, hit that follow button right now on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss tomorrow's story. Today, we are talking about why the High Seas Treaty took nearly two decades to negotiate. Because on the surface, this probably seems simple. The ocean is under pressure. Countries agree that biodiversity matters. So why did it take almost twenty years to reach an agreement? Now listen, we've been talking about the high seas all week, and it's really interesting when we look at how things work in the conservation world.

0:46 Uh, we need conservation to work like tomorrow or even yesterday, and it takes twenty years for something that's as big as the High Seas Treaty to get into play, and it probably was in the works before that too because we needed to work on how we can enforce and how we can control and how we can protect the high seas and the ocean that takes up, seventy-one percent of our planet. But the answer of why it took twenty years, it really shows how complicated ocean conservation really is, and we're gonna talk about that today. The High Seas Treaty was negotiated through the United Nations, and unlike national laws, international agreements require countries with different priorities to work together, which, let's be honest, that's not easy, right?

1:29 That's really difficult. We've seen how things are managed these days, and we know it's really difficult. Even the Ross Sea MPA that's in Antarctica, which Antarctica is managed by twenty-four countries, it took over a decade for that to go through because there were countries, particular two, China and Russia, who didn't wanna give up power in fishing in that area. So, it becomes a pretty difficult thing. Eventually, they got it through, which is great, but it still becomes a pretty difficult thing. Now, some countries wanted stronger conservation rules, while others were worried more about losing economic opportunities, like I mentioned China and Russia in certain situations. Not every situation, but certain situations, especially when it comes down to fishing. Now, some nations have enormous industrial fishing fleets, the Chinese distant fleet is probably the biggest distant fleet in the world.

2:11 Others rely heavily on marine resources for food security. And then we have the issue of fairness. One of the biggest debates centered around marine genetic resources which is all about fairness. That includes genetic material from deep sea organisms that could someday help develop medicines, cosmetics, biotechnology products, or even industrial applications. Now, developed countries often have the technology and the research capabilities, or capacity really and money really it comes down to, to benefit from those discoveries. While developing countries argue that benefits should be shared more equitably. Now think about this. If you're a country that's a developing country, and there's an animal that was found just offshore from your shores, like just past the two hundred nautical mile mark, you would have probably found it eventually if you had the money and the resources and the capacity to actually go out and look for these types of animals.

3:06 And maybe that money that when you discovered and through the sale of the cure or whatever you're looking for, the genetic material, could have been a benefit to your country. But meanwhile, you don't have the capacity, but other countries can come in, grab whatever they want, and leave. So that was a big part of the High Seas Treaty. Now suddenly, the conversation became much bigger than the conservation. It became about economics, access, and global power. So not just about keeping things the way it should be. Keep protecting the ocean and things like that. Now this matters because it reveals something important. The ocean conservation problem is political, and the solutions are often political. We often frame conservation as science versus destruction, but international conservation is also a negotiation.

3:49 It involves trade-offs. Countries protect national interests. They're all gonna be a little bit selfish in their own ways. Industries will lobby governments. Deep sea mining, industries are lobbying governments right And enforcement becomes incredibly sensitive when nobody technically owns the area being protected. It's very difficult for two nations to work together to benefit each other. Imagine trying to, to negotiate and work together when one is trying to get access to something that the other one doesn't want. It could be very difficult. But here's another challenge. Who enforces the rules on the high seas? The United Nation doesn't have its own police force, and countries largely enforce regulations themselves. And that creates major concerns about accountability, especially when illegal fishing remains widespread in some parts of the world, many parts of the world.

4:37 The treaty is important because it finally creates a legal framework for coordinated action. Before this, creating marine protected areas in international waters was extremely difficult, if not impossible. A lot of them were paper parks. Now there's at least a process. That may sound a little bureaucratic, and it probably is, but the framework actually matters here. Without the rules, cooperation falls apart pretty quickly. Now, if you're getting value from this episode and these quick ocean updates, follow the show and you'll never miss another episode. We're gonna be posting tomorrow. We're gonna have an interview with Rebecca Hubbard. She's the director of the High Seas Alliance. We're gonna talk all about the high seas, especially the High Seas Treaties, what I've been prepping you all week for, and I can't wait for you to listen to it. So don't miss out and follow the show right away.

5:19 Now the focus shifts from negotiation to implementation. We've done the negotiation. Some countries still need to ratify the treaty, but we have eighty-nine at this point that have actually ratified the treaty. Now, ratification means that the countries are accepting it into national law. That progress can take years. Even my own country, Canada, hasn't ratified yet. They've agreed to it, but they haven't ratified yet. So after ratification comes implementation, which is the hardest part, the monitoring, the enforcement, the funding, the scientific coordination, and political follow-through. Because a treaty announcement creates headlines, but real conservation requires long-term commitment. This is where ocean advocates like Rebecca Hubbard, who's the director of the High Seas Alliance, continues to push this momentum forward.

6:02 Fear is not that the treaty fails dramatically. Fear is that it slowly loses the urgency to actually be implemented, and that happens a lot in global politics. We've seen it with the Paris Accord. Some countries take it seriously. Some countries don't. It kind of just falls off the map. And then some countries just demonize it and make it, like, the worst thing ever. And if you follow that, you are politically leaning one way or another. You're not just looking out for the planet and looking out for your own health, the safety of your family, your community, your country, and so forth. Now, the challenge now is keeping pressure on governments to turn promises into action. Like, for me, my whole purpose right now for ocean conservation and the high seas is to make sure that Canada actually ratifies and sooner than later.

6:43 The High Seas Treaty did not take twenty years because people disagreed that the ocean matters. It took twenty years because protecting shared resources forces countries to confront power, economics, fairness, and accountability all at once. And now the world has to prove the agreement is more than symbolic. It has to prove that this can be implemented, and it can work. And we're gonna find out how that's gonna happen and when that's gonna happen, all of that if you follow this podcast. So follow the podcast, How to Protect the Ocean podcast, this one here, for your next weekday Ocean News Update, which is tomorrow, and we're gonna be talking to Rebecca Hubbard, who's the director of the High Seas Alliance, and she's gonna talk all about how the High Seas Alliance started, all about the High Seas Treaty, what to expect, what can we expect in the next year at the first COP for the High Seas Treaty.

7:31 It's gonna be a lot of fun. Don't miss out. Hit that follow button right now. And of course, if you have any questions or you have any comments or you wanna continue this conversation that I started here, you can hit me up on any of my socials. They're in the show notes. Check it out. And if you want to check out the sponsor of the show, Pisces Oceans, which is the company I work for, it's piscesoceans.ca. Check it out. You can find out some of our products and services that we do. We help eliminate barriers so that you can have success in your project. So check that out, piscesoceans.ca. All the links are in the show notes. I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.