Earlier this year, and after nearly twenty years of discussion and five years of negotiations, countries around the world agreed to protect biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, but how will this new agreement benefit seabirds? On World Seabird Day (3 July), colleagues from our International Marine Programme join us to explore the benefits of the High Seas Treaty for seabirds and why it is crucial to protect these iconic marine species. Bernadette Butfield, Cintia Baranyi and Oli Yates explain more.
Our teamWorld Seabird Day is a great opportunity to firstly introduce you to the work of our team, the International Marine Programme. Our focus is on conserving seabird populations. We work internationally with other NGOs, businesses, fisheries, governments and other partners to help identify the threats that seabirds are facing and devise and introduce measures to address them.
Our work crosses borders and oceans and stretches across a range of disciplines and is anchored in science. You can read more about our work in Japan and Taiwan here and sustainable fisheries here and here. Today we'll take you into the policy realm and explain how a new Treaty has the opportunity to help us protect biodiversity in the High Seas.
The High SeasCovering almost half of the world’s surface, the High Seas is a vast area of the ocean that supports a myriad of life. The High Seas is the name given to the area of ocean that falls outside the jurisdiction of any one nation and is managed as international waters for the benefit of all. Despite this, no legal framework has existed to safeguard marine biodiversity on the High Seas, making these waters vulnerable to a range of risks, including climate change, overexploitation, and pollution. That is until now.
In June of this year, countries from around the world adopted the final text of the “Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction”. Luckily, it is also more easily referred to as the High Seas Treaty.
It recognises the critical importance of conserving and sustainably using the ocean's biodiversity, noting the crucial role the oceans play in regulating the earth's climate, supporting food security, and providing a range of ecosystem services.
The agreement covers four main areas: - marine genetic resources, including their access and benefit-sharing;- area- based management tools, including marine protected areas;- environmental impact assessments;- capacity building and technology transfer; and legal tools to improve cooperation and coordination in the management of marine areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Safeguarding important areas for seabirdsSeabirds, as an integral part of marine ecosystems, stand to benefit significantly from the implementation of this agreement. It presents a unique opportunity to address the threats facing seabirds in areas beyond national jurisdiction and removes governance gaps in the high seas where past legal frameworks have often been fragmented and inadequate. It is hoped it will be ratified by at least 60 countries rapidly, enabling it to enter into force in 2025.
Many seabirds are highly migratory and travel great distances across the ocean to forage and breed. Albatrosses can spend around 40% of their time on the High Seas. For example, the Wandering Albatross can live for over half a century and may traverse more than 5.2 million miles during a lifetime - equivalent to approximately 11 round trips to the moon. They have adjusted so well to their existence in the ocean that they spend the initial six or more years of their lifespan without ever landing on solid ground. Providing protection to the most important areas of the High Seas could tip the balance in favour of their survival.
Wandering Albatrosses can live for over half a century and may traverse more than 5.2 million miles during a lifetime - equivalent to approximately 11 round trips to the moon. © Brydon Thomason (rspb-images.com).
The High Seas Treaty provides the mechanism to establish area-based management tools like marine protected areas (MPAs). MPAs in international waters will require strong collaboration between nations prior to designation, but identified by the High Seas Alliance represent important foraging areas for seabirds. The devil is in the detail, and any site protection or management measures will need to be supported by evidence-based design and well-defined management, monitoring and enforcement plans. While decisions under the Treaty are ideally reached through consensus, in cases where consensus cannot be achieved, a two-thirds majority vote on MPAs can be utilized, ensuring that actions are taken forward even in the presence of political differences. To effectively influence High Seas sites we will be drawing on our experience on the design and designation of a major seabird hotspot in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean known as the NACES MPA. A decision of the management authority OSPAR this week has enabled the protection of the full water column at the site, from the seafloor to the surface waters to protect marine biodiversity and the entire marine ecosystem.
Many seabirds travel great distances across the ocean to forage and breed. For instance familiar species like the Kittiwake spend their winters far from our shores in the North Atlantic Ocean. © Bernadette Butfield/RSPB.
Encouraging sustainable developmentThe High Seas Treaty aims to strike a balance between conservation and environmentally sustainable use of marine resources, while supporting economic development.
Notably, the Treaty includes provisions for the conduct of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for new activities that may have a significant impact on marine biodiversity.
Environmental impact assessments must be based on the best available scientific information and consider the potential impacts of the activity on the marine environment. It also requires that the results of the assessments be made available to the public and that the public can provide input into the decision-making process.
Enhancing international cooperation to tackle seabird bycatch on the High Seas Despite ambitious aims to protect biodiversity on the High Seas, the Treaty cannot undermine existing international frameworks and bodies. The most notable being Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs), which are responsible for the governance of fisheries activity in different regions of the High Seas.
Bycatch is the incidental capture of non-target species, including seabirds, in fisheries and is recognised as one of the main drivers of seabird population declines globally. Much of our work has focussed on tackling the issue of seabird bycatch in both national waters and on the High Seas.
We have made great leaps forward to reduce seabird bycatch in national waters and our advocacy has led to all five tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisations requiring vessels to use seabird conservation measures. The High Seas Treaty represents an important additional point of leverage to strengthen RFMO conservation measures to align with recommendations by the Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) in their best-practice guidelines.
So the Treaty will provide an important new governance framework that has great potential to improve the protection of marine biodiversity on the High Seas, which is particularly important habitat for some of the world’s more endangered seabirds. We will be engaging closely with the process and using our experience in supporting the designation of the NACES MPA to positively influence conservation outcomes for seabirds in other priority High Seas sites.
On World Seabird Day, this is an all-too-rare good news story for ocean wanderers.
Continue reading- World Tuna Day 2023 - how seabird safe is the tuna we eat? - A view from the waves – how we’re working with retailers to make seafood safer for seabirds - The mighty Pacific: how the RSPB is working with partners in Japan and Taiwan to reduce albatross deaths in High Seas fisheries
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