Conservation and Biodiversity
Inside the New High Seas Treaty
February 13, 2026
Waters beyond national jurisdiction — also known as the “high seas” — host charismatic icons like whales, rays, and sea turtles. They also contain creatures who seem to come from an alien realm: bone-eating worms snacking on whale skull, candy-colored forests of bubblegum coral, and siphonophores forming 100-foot-long chains of mouths and tentacles. But human knowledge of this life represents only a fraction of what’s really out there. In fact, scientists estimate that over 90% of marine species remain undescribed, meaning they have not been named or classified in scientific literature.
These otherworldly organisms are good for more than scientific wonder: life on the high seas also helps slow global warming. When phytoplankton photosynthesize on the sunlit surface, they fix carbon to build their biomass. This carbon moves through the food web; as organisms die and produce waste, some of the carbon sinks down to the deep sea, where it can be stored for hundreds to thousands of years. This is known as the biological pump, and it stores 2.8 billion tons of carbon annually (equivalent to 10 billion tons of CO2).
Until now, there has been no legally binding international agreement dedicated to protecting biodiversity on the high seas, an expanse that contains 95% of the ocean’s volume. Some light finally pierced this literal and legal abyss when the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement took effect on January 17th, 2026, after nearly 20 years of negotiations at the U.N. The agreement aims to address biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation in the high seas, which are caused by climate change and pollution, including plastic pollution.
The BBNJ Agreement includes four pillars designed to protect marine species and ecosystems: here’s how each part works.
Marine Genetic Resources, a.k.a. The Biological Building Blocks of Innovation
What are marine genetic resources? Think: the chemical reaction that causes a bioluminescent jellyfish to glow, or the antifreeze proteins found in Antarctic fish that are used to improve the texture of ice cream. Marine genetic resources are the gene sequences, chemical processes, or other biological materials of marine organisms that can be used to generate new scientific knowledge and commercial products.
Marine genetic resources from the deep sea are especially eye-catching because this zone is teeming with extremophiles — organisms that thrive in extreme temperature, pressure, and darkness conditions. These adaptations are why deep-sea life often appears so alien. They’re also why researchers suspect that these creatures might contain unique genetic resources with potentially useful applications in fields like medicine, cosmetics, agriculture, and even climate change adaptation.
The BBNJ Agreement says that marine genetic resources belong to everyone, not just the richest corporations that can most easily access them. The treaty requires benefits sharing, which means that money, data, and knowledge derived from marine genetic resources and their resulting products will be shared with the international community, particularly with developing countries. Countries will use these shared benefits to strengthen the technology and institutions that protect the sustainable use of marine genetic resources.
This effort is particularly important as humans explore the possibility of deep-sea mining, which many scientists believe would devastate these ecosystems before we’ve even had a chance to explore them. Benefits sharing makes everyone a stakeholder in the responsible use and development of marine genetic resources, creating both funding and financial incentives for their conservation.
Protecting Biodiversity Hotspots
The largest conservation area in the United States is actually in the ocean; the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is larger than all of our national parks combined. Located around Hawaii’s northern islands, this area protects diverse habitats from reefs to deep seas and hosts over 7,000 marine species. Some of these species are endangered, like the green sea turtle, and others, like the Hawaiian monk seal, cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
The second part of the BBNJ Agreement seeks to set up a network of similar marine protected areas across the high seas. Since these waters lie outside of any country’s jurisdiction, there hasn’t previously been a clear legal procedure for establishing marine protected areas here. Currently, less than 1% of the high seas are fully protected.
We don’t yet know exactly where the marine protected areas will be, but there are plenty of contenders.
Take hydrothermal vent cities: towering chimney stacks push up from the seabed, pumping out piping-hot minerals where magma meets seawater. Microorganisms convert these minerals directly into energy through chemosynthesis — a process like photosynthesis, but swap out sunlight for inorganic compounds. The discovery of chemosynthesis radically changed scientists’ views about where life could exist and set off a whole chain of discoveries of new organisms.
Or the thermal dome: gather around! Every year in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, colliding warm and cool currents cause cold, nutrient-rich water to rise from the depths to the warmer surface, creating the perfect conditions for algae to thrive. Around this algae coalesces a vast, diverse food web. Zooplankton bring filter-feeding fish, which, in turn, bring tuna and birds of prey, eventually attracting animals like dolphins and whales. Besides being an essential food source, mating site, and nursery for a variety of migratory species, this biodiversity hotspot is also a carbon sink, meaning it reduces greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by storing more carbon than it releases.
Hydrothermal vents and the thermal dome are just two pockets in the expanse of high seas biodiversity that may finally gain protections under the treaty.
Environmental Impact Assessments
Without an international agreement, the high seas are kind of a free-for-all in terms of commercial activity. Who is going to come after (or even notice) corporations harming the environment miles and miles away from anyone’s national jurisdiction?
The third part of the BBNJ Agreement addresses this absence of accountability. Now, any party planning an activity in the high seas that could harm the marine environment, like deep-sea mining, industrial fishing, or building new infrastructure, must first conduct an environmental impact assessment. The treaty also requires environmental impact assessments for activities within national jurisdictions whose impacts might extend to international waters.
This assessment reports on potential environmental harms, how the party plans to mitigate these harms, any gaps in their knowledge about the expected consequences, and follow-up strategies for long-term conservation. They are also required to consult with the public after publicizing their plans.
Each country is responsible for making sure that any private actor under its jurisdiction complies with this procedure, and potentially harmful activities can only go forward after the authorizing country has reviewed the impact assessment and granted permission. The BBNJ’s Scientific and Technical Body also reviews environmental impact assessments throughout their development, including deciding when one is needed, identifying any relevant omissions in assessment plans, and monitoring the project’s compliance with environmental standards.
But let’s be clear, it’s pretty hard to measure an activity’s impact when we know so little about the ecosystems that might be harmed. Recall that over 90% of marine species remain undescribed. It’s no wonder, since humans have directly observed just .001% of the seafloor. If we want accurate environmental impact assessments, we’re going to need more robust research.
Capacity Building and Technology Transfer: We’re All in This Together
Which brings us to capacity building. Knitting together equity and conservation, this final pillar of the BBNJ treaty focuses on improving our collective capability to understand and conserve life on the high seas. As we know so little about the oceans, high seas technology and scientific knowledge is cutting edge, and conducting research or implementing conservation goals in this zone is often extremely expensive. The average daily operating cost of a deep-sea research ship is around $30,000.
Not all countries have the same capacity to undertake research and support conservation efforts on this blue frontier. And, as we begin to flesh out the BBNJ Agreement’s other mandates, we need good research to support good policy. With this in mind, the fourth pillar instructs countries to share their scientific expertise, data, and infrastructure (like specialized ships or lab equipment) to help build the marine technological capacity of developing states. The more widespread, diverse, and collaborative our efforts to understand and protect high seas biodiversity, the greater our chances of meaningful conservation.
How Can You Help Protect High Seas Biodiversity?
The United States has signed the BBNJ Agreement, but it has not been ratified by the Senate, which is necessary for us to become full members. Call or write your Senator! Let them know that you care about high seas biodiversity and ask them to ratify the treaty.
The BBNJ Agreement unfortunately does not address plastic in its four pillars, even though its preamble cites plastic pollution as a key contributor to high seas biodiversity loss. Disturbingly, the deepest-ever sea dive discovered plastic wrappers 7 miles underwater in the Mariana Trench, illustrating plastic’s reach into the most hidden crevices of our planet. If you want to be part of the solution to global plastic pollution, sign our Global Plastic Treaty or consider contributing to Earth Day’s End Plastics campaign.
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