Eighteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty on Monday, bringing the total to 49 — just 11 short of the 60 needed for the ocean agreement to enter into force.

The High Seas Treaty is very interesting for many different reasons. First, the name, as you suggest, High Seas, gives a sense of the romanticism of the oceans.

Activists, scientists and Indigenous community members, alongside Greenpeace, called on governments to agree on the process ...

Along with environmental protections, the treaty also sets out new economic rules that will govern how resources from the high seas can be used — and how profits must be shared between countries.

Along with environmental protections, the treaty also sets out new economic rules that will govern how resources from the high seas can be used — and how profits must be shared between countries.

For example, the U.S. has yet to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was the last international treaty on ocean protection signed over 40 years ago.

Nichola Clark, senior officer of ocean governance at The Pew Charitable Trusts, presented her talk “The New High Seas Treaty: what’s in it, how we got there, and what’s next” Sept. 15, as part of the ...