Almost two-thirds of the ocean lies in the high seas - the waters beyond any country's jurisdiction - and for all of history there has been no legal way to protect them [1]. The High Seas Treaty is the first, and this month the United Kingdom joined it [2].
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper signed the UK's ratification, bringing the number of countries that have formally adopted the treaty past ninety [2]. The agreement is the first framework capable of creating marine protected areas in international waters - the vast, shared part of the sea that covers nearly two-thirds of the planet's ocean [1].
The treaty has already entered into force, and each new ratification widens the coalition behind the goal of protecting thirty percent of the ocean by 2030 - a distant target when barely one percent of the high seas is protected today [2]. A part of the world that belonged to no one, and so could be defended by no one, is finally getting a set of rules [1][2].
