A Together For the Ocean Blog authored by HSA Director Rebecca Hubbard.
The High Seas – the entire ocean, seafloor and water column outside national jurisdictions – was for many years widely perceived as a lawless wilderness. And there are good reasons why. Since Hugo Grotius, one of history’s most famous legal scholars, established the “freedom of the seas” doctrine in 1609, these vast ocean areas have essentially belonged to no one, meaning everyone could freely fish, ship and conduct research in them.
With a growing human population and advances in technology enabling us to exploit further, faster and deeper into these waters, the need to better manage the ocean has intensified. Although the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted in 1982, provisions to govern the High Seas and protect biodiversity remained patchy, leaving critically threatened ecosystems and the incredible diversity of life they support vulnerable to increasing pressures.
This really matters because we cannot effectively restore nature, stabilize the climate, and secure a healthy future for everyone unless we safeguard our international waters.