The High Seas Treaty Is Law Now. Here's How We Got Here.

There's a video online of a room full of exhausted diplomats breaking into applause. One woman, Ambassador Rena Lee of Singapore, brings down the gavel and says: "the ship has reached the shore." That was March 4, 2023, at UN headquarters in New York, the moment negotiators finally agreed on the text of the High Seas Treaty, formally known as the BBNJ Agreement (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction). It capped a negotiation that had already failed once in public, and it became binding international law this year.

A Two-Decade Timeline

The idea first surfaced at a UN Oceans working session in 2004. From 2006 to 2015, an ad hoc working group met roughly nine times just to study whether a treaty was even needed. In 2015, that group finally recommended moving forward. A preparatory committee ran four sessions between 2016 and 2017 to rough out the treaty's contents. Then, from 2018 to 2023, a formal intergovernmental conference held five negotiating sessions to write the actual legal text.

The fifth of those sessions, in August 2022, ended without a deal. Negotiators got close on all four pillars but ran out of time, particularly on marine genetic resources and how to fund implementation. It took a second attempt, and a roughly two-day final negotiating push in early March 2023, to close the gap. The treaty was formally adopted by consensus on June 19, 2023.

The Four Pillars

The treaty rests on four pillars that took two decades to agree on:

1. Marine genetic resources. Who profits when deep-sea organisms discovered in international waters turn out to be useful for medicine or biotechnology? The treaty addresses how those benefits get shared with countries that can't afford their own deep-sea research fleets, even when the organisms are found near their waters.

2. Marine protected areas. How do you create and manage a protected area in international waters, where no single country has jurisdiction to declare one? The treaty sets out a process for proposing and managing these areas collectively.

3. Environmental impact assessments. Before new high seas activity, including deep-sea mining, goes forward, the treaty requires an impact assessment to show it won't cause significant damage.

4. Capacity building and technology transfer. So that poorer coastal nations aren't locked out of enforcing or benefiting from any of this, and can build their own scientific and technical capacity instead of relying on funding from wealthier countries.

Where Things Stand Now

The treaty needed 60 ratifications to become binding law. Morocco became the 60th ratifying country on September 19, 2025. The treaty formally entered into force on January 17, 2026, meaning it's binding law, not a symbolic milestone. Roughly two thirds of the ocean, close to half the planet's surface, lies in international waters beyond any single country's jurisdiction. Before this treaty, less than one percent of that area had any form of protection.

Ratifications are still climbing (check the High Seas Alliance ratification tracker for the current count, since it changes frequently). Neither Canada nor the US has ratified yet. A third preparatory committee session ran March 23 to April 2, 2026, at UN headquarters, advancing terms of reference for the treaty's scientific panels and a prototype shared data system. The first Conference of the Parties (COP1) is expected in January 2027, where unresolved questions, including how much wealthier countries are obligated to contribute financially, how marine protected areas actually get designated under Article 18, and who hosts the treaty secretariat, will be fought out.

It's Not Perfect, But It's a Start

This first version of the treaty has loopholes. Andrew says so himself: when he first read it, that was his immediate reaction. But two decades of "maybe we should think about this" turned into an actual, binding agreement that 196 countries had already committed to building toward when they agreed to the 30 by 30 target in 2022. The treaty is now the primary legal tool for hitting that target, protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030, with less than four years left on the clock.

Takeaways:

• The High Seas Treaty (BBNJ) took roughly 20 years to negotiate, including a public failure in August 2022.
• Agreement was reached March 4, 2023; formal adoption followed June 19, 2023.
• Four pillars: marine genetic resource benefit-sharing, marine protected areas, environmental impact assessments, and capacity building.
• 60 ratifications triggered entry into force; Morocco was the 60th, on September 19, 2025.
• The treaty entered into force January 17, 2026, covering roughly two thirds of the ocean.
• COP1 is expected January 2027, where major unresolved issues will be decided.