NEARLY 70 countries, including Australia, signed a first-ever treaty on protecting the international high seas launched by the United Nations to give two-thirds of the world’s oceans a “fighting chance” at surviving pollution, overexploitation, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
The High Seas Treaty, also known as the Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction or ‘BBNJ’, was signed on the sidelines of the United Nations High-Level Week in New York on September 20.
Some of the signatories include the United States, China, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, and Mexico as well as the European Union.
However, each country still needs to ratify the treaty under its own domestic process. It will only come into force 120 days after 60 countries have ratified it.
The high seas are defined by international law as all parts of the ocean that aren’t included in the exclusive economic zone, the territorial sea, or the internal waters of a country, or basically, the ocean area starting 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) off coastlines.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed the agreement as a way to give the ocean – the lifeblood of the planet – a new life and a fighting chance.
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong represented Australia in signing the landmark treaty which covers 60% of Earth’s ocean.
Australia is home to the world’s largest coral reef system known as the Great Barrier Reef which houses more than 9,000 known species.
The signing of the treaty came amid rising threats to the ocean environment in recent years due to overfishing and rising temperatures while the problems of plastic, oil, and noise pollution have still not been brought under control.
