Creating, coordinating, and implementing international ocean policy is a complex and time-consuming endeavor.
August 10, 2017 — The earth’s surface is more than 70% ocean, more water than land, a mass of blue connecting disconnected green. Nation states claim up to 200 miles from their coasts as areas of “national jurisdiction” over which they have the power to exploit, consume, and regulate. But the vast majority of the ocean lies outside those boundaries—the high seas—an enormous reservoir of biodiversity that presents a very difficult challenge for governance and enforcement, for protection and sustainability.
In 1967 international diplomats, representing some 160 countries, began discussions and negotiations for what became in 1973 the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that, in 1994, was ratified as a means “to define the rights and responsibilities of nations with respect to their use of the world’s ocean, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources.”
Since the ratification of the Law of the Sea, international experts have been considering and debating how to create a binding instrument to address the changing accessibility of marine areas outside national jurisdiction and the new technologies, increased scientific knowledge, and expanding resource demands that impact them.