The high seas, or international waters,\nencompasses all areas beyond 200 nautical miles (nm) of shore, which in total constitutes\none-half of the world\u2019s surface area. Not only is this a massive area, but also\nhosts a diversity of life, with species ranging from sharks and albatrosses, to\ntuna and sea turtles using the high seas on a regular basis (Harrison et al. 2018<\/a>).\nImportantly, many species from these groups are in severe decline (here<\/a>), and\ntherefore it may not suffice to protect them while within national waters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When many of us think of the high seas the first thing that comes to\nmind is legal freedom. These are the places where clandestine activity is\nundertaken, from pirate radio stations (here<\/a>), to providing abortion procedures\nto women from countries where they are illegal (here<\/a>). But with\nso much attention being paid at the moment to marine environmental issues like\nplastic waste and overfishing, it might be helpful to know what the high seas\nactually are, legally-speaking, and how this relates to nature management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1609, the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius declared in a legal treatise that\nthe oceans are Mare liberum<\/em>, or \u2018free\nseas,\u2019 and therefore open to navigation. This went directly in the face of the status quo<\/em> at the time under which\ncolonial powers, namely Spain and Portugal, were claiming sovereign control over\nentire ocean basins (here<\/a>). Englishman John Selden coined this\nopposing worldview Mare clausum<\/em>, or\n\u2018closed seas,\u2019 in a 1635 rebuttal of Grotius, wherein he claimed that the seas\nare as amenable to territorial appropriation as is land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A centuries-long tug-of-war ensued, culminating in 1982 when the United\nNations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) was struck. This landmark\npiece of international law reflects a solidified balance between Mare liberum<\/em> and Mare clausum<\/em>, by bringing nearshore areas under national\njurisdiction, while allowing distant, offshore waters to remain \u201cfree\u201d.\nSpecifically, UNCLOS mandates that waters within 12 nm of shore be \u2018territorial\nwaters,\u2019 wherein nations have full jurisdiction, and waters within 200 nm be\n\u2018exclusive economic zones\u2019 (EEZ), wherein nations have resource extraction\nrights as well as full conservation responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon adoption of this legal framework, one-third of the world\u2019s oceans\ncame under direct jurisdiction of the world\u2019s coastal nations, while the\nremaining two-thirds became so-called Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ).\nUnder UNCLOS, any and all actors have equal right to use and access these areas,\n\u00e0 la<\/em> Mare liberum<\/em>. However, with freedom comes responsibility and UNCLOS\ndoes also stipulate that all high seas actors are responsible for the\npreservation and protection of the high seas environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So how is this done, in practice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n UNCLOS requires that states \u201cadopt measures\u201d and \u201ccollaborate\u201d to\nconserve marine life. In essence, if entities under a state\u2019s jurisdiction,\nlike fishing fleets, use the high seas then the state is responsible for\ncoordinating with other parties to regulate the activity and mitigate impacts. In\nthe case of fisheries, this takes the form of Regional Fisheries Management\nOrganizations (RFMOs), which provide a forum for states to discuss not only catch\nregulation, but also for conservation-related issues to be raised. One major\nconservation issue related to fishing in the high seas is the incidental catch\nof non-target species (termed \u201cbycatch\u201d), and it is at meetings of RFMO members\nthat these issues can be raised and solutions adopted. Nevertheless,\norganizations such as RFMOs have as their mandate only to manage target fish\nspecies, and therefore any impacts of their policies on other marine\nbiodiversity, positive or negative, are only side effects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another instrument for conserving high seas biodiversity is the\nestablishment of explicit areas in which human activities are limited. These\ncan range from temporary fisheries closures areas, as implemented by RFMOs, to Marine\nProtected Areas (MPAs) wherein a broader range of human activity may be restricted.\nAt the moment, the only legal frameworks in place with the mandate to establish\nMPAs in the high seas are regional seas conventions, such as the Convention on\nthe Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). Under the\nmandate of the Antarctic Treaty System, CCAMLR has led to a number of protective\nmeasures for creatures inhabiting waters south of 60\u00b0 S, including protected\nareas as well as comprehensive restrictions on resource extraction (Ban et al.\n2014<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the adoption of UNCLOS in the 1980s, humanity\u2019s interest in resource use in the high seas has increased in scope and scale. In parallel, interest in whole-ecosystem management has also grown; which, in part reflects an improved scientific understanding of the ocean environment and its interconnected and dynamic nature (here<\/a>). While the regional structure of CCAMLR in the Southern Ocean provides examples of near comprehensive, international nature management, there remain large swathes of the high seas lacking such regional-based coordination (Ban et al. 2014). Therefore, what is likely the only sure-fire way to achieve this goal is to implement a comprehensive legal framework for the high seas, which can reflect our evolving management values, and take advantage of an ever-improving understanding of the marine environment (Wright et al. 2019<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This framework, referred to in policy circles as the International Legally\nBinding Instrument (ILBI) is a veritable \u2018Holy grail\u2019 for international nature\npolicy, and has been sought after since the initiation of the UNCLOS process in\nthe 1970s (Ban et al. 2014, Wright et al. 2019). To this end, the UN in 2018\nand 2019 convened sessions for member states to discuss the possibilities and\nchallenges of adopting an ILBI for the high seas. At the most recent meeting, major\nsticking points among members included the use of marine genetic resources,\nspecifics on how benefits would be equitably shared among benefactors, as well the\nhandling of intellectual property rights (here<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Grotius\u2019 idea that the high seas should be open and free to all was a revolutionary one. However, this idea relied on a 17th<\/sup> century perspective of scale and human enterprise. At that point in time, undertaking activities such as fishing with baited hooks on lines 100 km in length (here<\/a>), and deep-sea mining using Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs; here<\/a>) at depths of 3.7 km were either unimaginable or practical impossibilities. The high seas are no longer out of reach nor invulnerable, and marine biodiversity are starting to pay the costs (here<\/a>). Therefore, it is time we use our updated perspective to lay out specific, integrated roles for the sustainable management of the high seas to the benefit of everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mare sustinendum <\/em>anyone?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The high seas, or international waters, encompasses all areas beyond 200 nautical miles (nm) of shore, which in total constitutes one-half of the world\u2019s surface area. Not only is this a massive area, but also hosts a diversity of life, with species ranging from sharks and albatrosses, to tuna and sea turtles using the high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920.jpg",1920,1080,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920.jpg",1920,1080,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920.jpg",1920,1080,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-1024x576.jpg",610,343,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920.jpg",1536,864,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920.jpg",1920,1080,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-680x330.jpg",680,330,true],"evolve-post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-680x330.jpg",680,330,true],"evolve-slider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-400x300.jpg",400,300,true],"evolve-tabs-img":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-50x50.jpg",50,50,true],"evolve-testimonial-avatar":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-80x80.jpg",80,80,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Martin Beal","author_link":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/author\/martin\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Blog<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The high seas, or international waters, encompasses all areas beyond 200 nautical miles (nm) of shore, which in total constitutes one-half of the world\u2019s surface area. Not only is this a massive area, but also hosts a diversity of life, with species ranging from sharks and albatrosses, to tuna and sea turtles using the high…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":531,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions\/531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Mare liberum<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Management and conservation<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
The future: Mare sustinendum<\/em> <\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![here<\/a>). Englishman John Selden coined this\nopposing worldview Mare clausum<\/em>, or\n\u2018closed seas,\u2019 in a 1635 rebuttal of Grotius, wherein he claimed that the seas\nare as amenable to territorial appropriation as is land.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA centuries-long tug-of-war ensued, culminating in 1982 when the United\nNations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) was struck. This landmark\npiece of international law reflects a solidified balance between Mare liberum<\/em> and Mare clausum<\/em>, by bringing nearshore areas under national\njurisdiction, while allowing distant, offshore waters to remain \u201cfree\u201d.\nSpecifically, UNCLOS mandates that waters within 12 nm of shore be \u2018territorial\nwaters,\u2019 wherein nations have full jurisdiction, and waters within 200 nm be\n\u2018exclusive economic zones\u2019 (EEZ), wherein nations have resource extraction\nrights as well as full conservation responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\nUpon adoption of this legal framework, one-third of the world\u2019s oceans\ncame under direct jurisdiction of the world\u2019s coastal nations, while the\nremaining two-thirds became so-called Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ).\nUnder UNCLOS, any and all actors have equal right to use and access these areas,\n\u00e0 la<\/em> Mare liberum<\/em>. However, with freedom comes responsibility and UNCLOS\ndoes also stipulate that all high seas actors are responsible for the\npreservation and protection of the high seas environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSo how is this done, in practice?<\/p>\n\n\n\nManagement and conservation<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\nUNCLOS requires that states \u201cadopt measures\u201d and \u201ccollaborate\u201d to\nconserve marine life. In essence, if entities under a state\u2019s jurisdiction,\nlike fishing fleets, use the high seas then the state is responsible for\ncoordinating with other parties to regulate the activity and mitigate impacts. In\nthe case of fisheries, this takes the form of Regional Fisheries Management\nOrganizations (RFMOs), which provide a forum for states to discuss not only catch\nregulation, but also for conservation-related issues to be raised. One major\nconservation issue related to fishing in the high seas is the incidental catch\nof non-target species (termed \u201cbycatch\u201d), and it is at meetings of RFMO members\nthat these issues can be raised and solutions adopted. Nevertheless,\norganizations such as RFMOs have as their mandate only to manage target fish\nspecies, and therefore any impacts of their policies on other marine\nbiodiversity, positive or negative, are only side effects. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAnother instrument for conserving high seas biodiversity is the\nestablishment of explicit areas in which human activities are limited. These\ncan range from temporary fisheries closures areas, as implemented by RFMOs, to Marine\nProtected Areas (MPAs) wherein a broader range of human activity may be restricted.\nAt the moment, the only legal frameworks in place with the mandate to establish\nMPAs in the high seas are regional seas conventions, such as the Convention on\nthe Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). Under the\nmandate of the Antarctic Treaty System, CCAMLR has led to a number of protective\nmeasures for creatures inhabiting waters south of 60\u00b0 S, including protected\nareas as well as comprehensive restrictions on resource extraction (Ban et al.\n2014<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe future: Mare sustinendum<\/em> <\/h5>\n\n\n\nSince the adoption of UNCLOS in the 1980s, humanity\u2019s interest in resource use in the high seas has increased in scope and scale. In parallel, interest in whole-ecosystem management has also grown; which, in part reflects an improved scientific understanding of the ocean environment and its interconnected and dynamic nature (here<\/a>). While the regional structure of CCAMLR in the Southern Ocean provides examples of near comprehensive, international nature management, there remain large swathes of the high seas lacking such regional-based coordination (Ban et al. 2014). Therefore, what is likely the only sure-fire way to achieve this goal is to implement a comprehensive legal framework for the high seas, which can reflect our evolving management values, and take advantage of an ever-improving understanding of the marine environment (Wright et al. 2019<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis framework, referred to in policy circles as the International Legally\nBinding Instrument (ILBI) is a veritable \u2018Holy grail\u2019 for international nature\npolicy, and has been sought after since the initiation of the UNCLOS process in\nthe 1970s (Ban et al. 2014, Wright et al. 2019). To this end, the UN in 2018\nand 2019 convened sessions for member states to discuss the possibilities and\nchallenges of adopting an ILBI for the high seas. At the most recent meeting, major\nsticking points among members included the use of marine genetic resources,\nspecifics on how benefits would be equitably shared among benefactors, as well the\nhandling of intellectual property rights (here<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\nGrotius\u2019 idea that the high seas should be open and free to all was a revolutionary one. However, this idea relied on a 17th<\/sup> century perspective of scale and human enterprise. At that point in time, undertaking activities such as fishing with baited hooks on lines 100 km in length (here<\/a>), and deep-sea mining using Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs; here<\/a>) at depths of 3.7 km were either unimaginable or practical impossibilities. The high seas are no longer out of reach nor invulnerable, and marine biodiversity are starting to pay the costs (here<\/a>). Therefore, it is time we use our updated perspective to lay out specific, integrated roles for the sustainable management of the high seas to the benefit of everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMare sustinendum <\/em>anyone?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The high seas, or international waters, encompasses all areas beyond 200 nautical miles (nm) of shore, which in total constitutes one-half of the world\u2019s surface area. Not only is this a massive area, but also hosts a diversity of life, with species ranging from sharks and albatrosses, to tuna and sea turtles using the high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920.jpg",1920,1080,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920.jpg",1920,1080,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920.jpg",1920,1080,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-1024x576.jpg",610,343,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920.jpg",1536,864,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920.jpg",1920,1080,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-680x330.jpg",680,330,true],"evolve-post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-680x330.jpg",680,330,true],"evolve-slider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-400x300.jpg",400,300,true],"evolve-tabs-img":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-50x50.jpg",50,50,true],"evolve-testimonial-avatar":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/oil-tankers-336718_1920-80x80.jpg",80,80,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Martin Beal","author_link":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/author\/martin\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Blog<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The high seas, or international waters, encompasses all areas beyond 200 nautical miles (nm) of shore, which in total constitutes one-half of the world\u2019s surface area. Not only is this a massive area, but also hosts a diversity of life, with species ranging from sharks and albatrosses, to tuna and sea turtles using the high…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":531,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions\/531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mare_clausum#\/media\/File:IberianMareClausum.svg\"){kind=link}
![here<\/a>) at depths of 3.7 km were either unimaginable or practical impossibilities. The high seas are no longer out of reach nor invulnerable, and marine biodiversity are starting to pay the costs (](\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Remotely_operated_underwater_vehicle#\/media\/File:ROV_working_on_a_subsea_structure.jpg\"){kind=link}