Feature

United Nations Seeks to Protect

High-Seas Biodiversity
RICHARD BLAUSTEIN

International talks are under way to create a new legally binding instrument.

T he high seas are critical to life

on Earth. They constitute over 50
percent of the planet’s area and over
90 percent of the habitable volume,
with depths of 200 meters or more.
Researchers continue to discover
amazing life forms in the deep sea. But
this rich biota faces a host of threats,
from climate-change-related ocean
acidification to pollution, deep-water
trawling, and overfishing. Recently,
scientists added to the list declining
oxygen levels.
A February 2016 study published in
Global Biogeochemical Cycles revealed
an increasing number of oxygen-min-
imum zones, areas with significantly Coral communities, well known on warm coasts, also form in the deep seas in
diminished marine life. Another 2016 the cold-water environment, providing habitat and feeding grounds to many
paper that had been widely antici- species of fish, sharks, cephalopods, and mollusks. Corals are being irreparably
pated, published in Conservation damaged by trawling. Photograph: National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Letters, called for expanding protected Administration OKEANOS Explorer Program, 2013 Northeast US
areas to a minimum of 30 percent of Canyons Expedition.
total ocean area.
Beyond the life it supports, the
global ocean system plays a key role biodiversity has long been a chal- Assembly resolution set up a prepara-
in mitigating climate change. The lenge. Researchers are hopeful that tory ­committee (PrepCom), which will
seas have an immense natural capac- ongoing discussions aimed at adding meet for 2 years to develop substan-
ity to absorb heat and carbon. Some a supplemental “biodiversity” treaty tive recommendations for the General
researchers also look to the oceans to the 1982 United Nations (UN) Assembly on such an instrument.
for potential geoengineering schemes, Convention on the Law of the Sea The fact that the UN is getting seri-
such as adding iron as a way to seques- may provide an opening for protect- ous about a legal instrument reflects
ter carbon. ing ­species and habitats in this critical a growing awareness that the deep
The high seas encompass the inter- area. A 2015 UN General Assembly oceans’ biodiversity is being degraded,
national area beyond the 200-mile- resolution, 69/292, established a pro- with many gaps in protection and with
from-shore exclusive economic zones cess for shaping an international international bodies and stakeholders
over which coastal nations have legal legally binding instrument (ILBI) for not working together. The first World
jurisdiction. Deciding how to conserve protecting biodiversity in areas beyond Ocean Assessment, which the UN
and sustainably manage high-seas national jurisdiction. The General published in 2015, found that many

BioScience 66: 713–719. © 2016 Blaustein. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1093/biosci/biw097

http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/66/9/713/1753986
September 2016 / Vol. 66 No. 9 • BioScience 713
by guest
on 02 February 2018
 Feature

global players focus on narrow sectoral

interests rather than on cooperation.
“Without a sound framework in which
to work, [stakeholders] may well fail
to take into account the ways in which
their decisions and actions interact
with those of others,” the assessment
authors found.
The first PrepCom meeting, held
in April, identified the central issues:
how to manage environmental impact
assessments, marine genetic resources,
and high-seas marine protected areas
in an international context, including
the role of existing oceans authorities,
such as regional fisheries-management
organizations. The second PrepCom
meeting takes place in September, with
two more scheduled for 2017. Later
next year, the PrepCom will make its
recommendations to the UN General
Assembly. Deep-seas environments, such as at hydrothermal vents and seamounts, are home
“What for me is exciting is the real- to many unique fish and other organisms, some of which depend on chemosynthetic
ization of a 10-plus-year path toward microorganisms for sustenance. The fish here is in the genus Gaidropsaurus.
trying to raise awareness of the impor- Photograph: Eva Ramirez-Llodra, BIOFUN/ICM-CSIC.
tance of these oceans issues—in the
United Nations, the Convention on
Biological Diversity, and the Food and
Agriculture Organization—any place
we could go,” says Kristina Gjerde,
the senior high-seas advisor to the
International Union for Conservation
of Nature. “[High-seas biodiversity
policy discussion] is centralized now;
it is a fixture in the firmament of
international law, and governments are
taking it very seriously.”
If the PrepCom lays the proper
groundwork in its report, she says, “the
UN General Assembly can agree to
launch an intergovernmental negotiat-
ing committee, which can then rapidly
finish their work by 2018.” She and
others fear, however, that the agree-
ment may be so broad and compro-
mised by competing interests that it
will not be potent enough to protect
high-seas biodiversity.
Black smokers are unique places of emission on the deep seafloor, often at the
Threats to life in the deep deep abyssal plane. The black emissions indicate the presence of sulfides, which
In the early days of deep-sea explora- are of mining interest. Photograph: Eva Ramirez-Llodra, BIOFUN/ICM-CSIC.
tion, researchers thought that only a
few species lived in a muddy, food- ecosystems, and species and many dif- the Scripps Oceanographic Institute
poor environment. “Especially in ferent ways that animals make a living and a director of the Deep Ocean
the last 40 years, we’ve discovered down in the deep ocean,” explains Stewardship Initiative, a union of
this profusion of different habitats, Lisa Levin, a marine ecologist at experts who advocate for and advise

714 BioScience • September 2016 / Vol. 66 No. 9

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/66/9/713/1753986
http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org
by guest
on 02 February 2018
 Feature

on deep oceans conservation and

science.
Levin points out that modern tech-
nologies—such as remotely operated
vehicles, autonomous underwater
vehicles, human-operated vehicles,
and sonar mapping—have shed light
on seafloor structures, such as sea-
mounts (steep underwater, mostly
inactive ­ volcanoes) and hydrother-
mal vents, and depressed features,
such as canyons and basins. She adds
that s­cientists now better appreci-
ate that currents, surface winds, and
the upwelling of the waters influence
­species adaptations and increase bio-
diversity. “What we have discovered
is that this wealth of environmental
heterogeneity promotes biodiversity in
many different forms,” she says.
Seamounts, hydrothermal vents,
midocean ridge environments, the Litter, especially plastics, has been found in the farthest recesses of the deep seas,
abyssal plain, and cold-water coral including in the Mariana Trench (not pictured here) in the Pacific Ocean, the
and sponge fields are the high seas’ deepest place on Earth. Photograph: Eva Ramirez-Llodra, BIOFUN/ICM-CSIC.
signature ecosystems, and their biota
is shaped by food sources, water mass,
salinity, and topography. Seamounts
have “dense assemblages of filter feed- Front toward Antarctica and in the Recent ocean-acidification science
ing organisms, typically coral and South Mid-Atlantic Ridge. She says that underscores the seas’ interconnected-
sponges,” says Levin. Corals serve as scientists have noticed some regional ness. The North Atlantic has severe
critical habitat, hosting rich biodiver- biotic differences with the vents: East ocean acidification, and these waters
sity. Thousands of seamounts are in the Pacific vents are home to white clams are transported through thermohaline
open ocean and deep national waters; and mussels, whereas the Atlantic vents circulation to other oceans depths and
some are flat topped, called guyots, have large shrimp and mussel popu- regions. “These changes that are being
with distinctive effects on ocean circu- lations, and the subpolar front vents experienced at the surface are being
lation, attracting long-maturing fish, have dense populations of yeti crabs. communicated much more directly to
such as orange roughy, that are com- Ramirez-Llodra adds that “hydrother- the deep sea than we thought before,”
mercially valuable. mal vents are like oases in the deep seas says Levin. This means that deep cold-
Hydrothermal vents in the deep where there is very high biomass, with a water corals and other species will be
oceans are another critical habitat. lot of animals, and many large animals, harmed, just as shallow water corals are.
Hydrothermal vents are home to che- but very little biodiversity because these Levin has also researched low-ocean-
mosynthetic species, which use the are extreme environments.” oxygen zones, beginning in 1988, when
chemicals emitted from the vents as These amazing life forms are threat- she used the famous submersible Alvin
an energy source, just as photosyn- ened, though, by human activities in the to explore “Volcano 7,” 200 miles off
thetic species use sunlight. For example, high seas. Orange roughy and other spe- Acapulco. Levin recounts observing
the famous and colorful tubeworms cies are being devastated by overfishing. a profusion of life—including masses
at Pacific Ocean hydrothermal vents Trawling has degraded the biodiversity of of brittle stars, sponges, and crabs—
do not have mouths or digestive sys- seamounts and has damaged corals that going up the volcano’s slope. When
tems and depend on their symbiotic take thousands of years to regenerate. she entered an oxygen-minimum zone,
chemosynthetic microorganisms for In a recent study of the Mediterranean though, she saw gray stones and only
sustenance. Eva Ramirez-Llodra, a deep sea, Ramirez-Llodra and colleagues a few traversing fish. “That was my
deep-seas marine biologist with the found that in samples in the eastern first wake-up to the fact that oxygen is
Research Centre for Coast and Ocean Mediterranean, the average weight of an incredibly powerful control on the
at the Norwegian Institute for Water litter in the sea, most of it plastic, was biodiversity and structure of life on the
Research, participated in the discovery more than the weight of fish, mollusks, seafloor,” Levin says. In fact, scientists
of hydrothermal vents south of the Polar and other animals. believe that the East Pacific region is

http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/66/9/713/1753986
September 2016 / Vol. 66 No. 9 • BioScience 715
by guest
on 02 February 2018
 Feature

experiencing significantly expanding

oxygen-minimum zones.
According to Levin, the deoxygen-
ation is due to two ocean-warming
factors. First, oxygen is less soluble in
warmer water, and second, warmer
water is more stratified with less upper
oxygen-rich waters circulating into the
deep, where organisms consume oxy-
gen that is not replaced. “This affects
the margins [in particular], but it is
actually affecting the whole ocean,”
Levin says, “There is already evidence
that [deoxygenation] is affecting fish,
big bill fish for example, with high
oxygen demands, and they are experi-
encing habitat compression into shal-
lower and shallow water.”
To date, there is no international
­policy for controlling ocean acidifica- Scientists are exploring why sharks congregate in certain areas, such as the “Shark
tion and deoxygenation in the high Café” in the Pacific Ocean. Sharks, top predators in high-seas environments, are being
seas. devastated by fishing. Photograph: Richard Brooks for the Pew Charitable Trusts.

An ILBI: Environmental impact

assessments, marine genetic
resources, and protected areas
The main focus of the PrepCom talks
is on three issues: environmental
impact assessments, marine genetic
resources, and marine protected areas.
Gjerde says the environmental impact
assessments (EIAs) are the most prom-
ising for early progress. “There seems
to be clear agreement for the need
for prior assessment of activities hav-
ing impact on marine biodiversity for
areas beyond national jurisdiction,”
she observes. She adds that the current
work on EIAs for mining within the
Law of the Sea’s International Seabed
Authority can offer guidance for the
PrepCom discussions.
Her colleague, international envi-
ronmental lawyer David Freestone,
agrees. He points out that the Law
of the Sea Convention has EIA pro-
visions, but they are vague, lack
reporting directives, and are not
being used. “The Conference of the
Parties [treaties’ recurrent gathering of
national representatives] to this new Kristina Gjerde, senior International Union for Conservation of Nature
instrument would be an ideal body to representative to United Nations (UN) deep-seas discussions, says an
receive EIAs for new activities,” make international legally binding instrument for high seas biodiversity would bring
decisions, and send out further direc- together disparate authorities who often do not communicate. Gjerde supports
tions. Freestone believes a strong EIA expanding the percentage of marine protected areas to beyond the current UN
process could also address a major gap 10 percent goal. Photograph: Adam de Sola Pool.

716 BioScience • September 2016 / Vol. 66 No. 9

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/66/9/713/1753986
http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org
by guest
on 02 February 2018

in international governance: how to
control geoengineering activity that
might be staged in the high seas, such
as dumping iron into the oceans to
see if it causes carbon sequestration
or spreading chalk on the surface to
simulate a reflecting albedo effect.
Marine genetic resources may be
the most controversial of the agenda
items. The genetic components of
organisms can be extracted for various
uses, such as pure taxonomic science,
commercial research, and pharma-
ceuticals. Many living in developing
countries want to share in the benefits
of genetic-resource discoveries con-
nected to the high seas, but some in
developed countries are wary of a new
system that might challenge estab-
lished intellectual-property norms,
such as patents.
There is also continuing disagree-
ment about the concept known as the
common heritage of mankind, which
implies collective ownership, an obli-
gation to conserve for future genera-
tions, and some sharing of rewards for
the development of common heritage
of mankind materials. The Law of the
Sea Convention explicitly links the
common heritage of mankind princi-
ple to high-seas seafloor resources, but
there is ongoing debate as to whether
this includes not only minerals but
also biological resources. In the first
PrepCom gathering, some developing
countries advocated for a common
heritage of mankind understanding
for organisms’ genome components in
the water column, too.
Gina Guillen-Grillo, legal adviser
to the Costa Rica mission to the UN
and representative to the talks, says
open dialogue during the PrepCom
process can lead to clarity on this issue.
The delegates can use the PrepCom
process to discuss terminology and
elaborate the fairness, conservation,
and development characteristics of a
just, international regime for high-seas
genetic resources. “We need to focus
on what we want the common heritage
for,” Guillen-Grillo says, adding that
this would help bridge the differences
about the common heritage of man-
kind principle.
http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/66/9/713/1753986
by guest
on 02 February 2018
The third main issue, marine pro-
tected areas, also generates disagree-
ment. Globally, marine protected areas
differ in which activities are allowed—
some are no-take zones, although oth-
ers are not. Many nations, including the
United States, want marine protected
areas in international waters to include
fisheries protections, whereas a few
fishing nations, prominently Russia,
do not. Also, many participants expect
that regional fisheries-management
organizations will be wary of introduc-
ing fisheries management into a new
agreement. At the same time, regional
fisheries-management organizations
will certainly play a role in enforc-
ing the agreement, whether by means
of their participating in crafting the
instrument or by the member states’
directing these organizations to abide
by the new UN instrument.
Elizabeth Wilson, director of inter-
national ocean policy at the Pew
Charitable Trust, advocates within the
PrepCom process for a strong marine
protected areas program. “It became
apparent there was this enormous gap
in the inability to establish marine pro-
tected areas in the high seas and that
these needed to be areas across fish-
eries and all the other activities that
were occurring,” says Wilson. Guillen-
Grillo says that the mandate of exist-
ing institutions should be respected
but that an ILBI can set up standards
for marine protected areas and get
the different actors to work together.
“The only way for us to really save the
oceans is to set up this [marine pro-
tected areas] network,” she says.
Wilson hopes the PrepCom and
ILBI process can lead to “a represen-
tative system of protected areas… to
cover a variety of different habitats.”
Pew is also working with University
of York marine conservation scientist
Callum Roberts, coauthor of the influ-
ential 2016 Conservation Letters arti-
cle, on the science of high-seas marine
protected areas. Roberts argues that
managing fisheries has to be included
in a marine protected areas program.
“If fisheries [management] is not
included, the major source of harm
to the high seas is outside the box. It
September 2016 / Vol. 66 No. 9 • BioScience 717
Feature
would be like having an agreement on
forest protection that does not include
logging companies,” he says. Any
agreement, says Roberts, should pro-
tect species such as the Pacific bluefin
tuna, which has declined by 97 per-
cent of its historic abundance and is
imperiled with extinction. Moreover,
Roberts believes it is imperative not
only to establish marine protected
areas but also to reform the regional
fisheries-management organizations,
which have not properly managed fish
stocks.
Effective high-seas marine pro-
tected areas will need to incorporate
other cutting-edge science. Ramirez-
Llodra is conducting related research
on high-seas organisms’ population
connectivity, reproduction cycles, and
larval distribution. According to her,
scientists need to understand whether
larvae or juveniles at healthy sites can
travel to impacted sites, such as where
deep-seas mining has taken place. “If
we are going to develop marine pro-
tected areas, we need to know how
the network is connected genetically,”
Ramirez-Llodra explains. “And one of
the key criteria is if [an area is] a
source for larvae or juveniles that can
then populate other regions.”
Resilience and timeliness
This high-seas biodiversity discourse
comes at a time when the recent Paris
Accord on Climate Change has raised
hopes for international efforts to
address global environmental prob-
lems, especially climate change. Wilson
says there is “a lot of momentum com-
ing out of the Paris agreement” and
that the talks on the high-seas biodi-
versity treaty are “an opportunity to
further those developments.” Creating
marine reserves on the high seas, she
says, can “help build [ecological] resil-
ience . . . in the light of climate change.”
Roberts agrees and has begun
exploring with other scientists what
marine protected areas can do for mit-
igating global environmental change
impacts. High seas marine protected
areas help increase ­ wildlife popu-
lations, making them less prone to
 Feature

Conserving life in the Sargasso Sea.

Ten endemic species live in the Sargassum weed,
according to ocean biologist Howard Roe. For many
fish, the Sargassum serves as a nursery and a feeding
area. The Sargasso Sea is also a major migration
hub for several species of sharks and whales.
Photograph: LookBermuda.
This loggerhead sea turtle, hatched on Georgia’s Blackbeard
Island, is taking his time to adjust to his new surroundings and
strengthen his muscles before his long journey to the Sargasso Sea.
Photograph: United States Fish and Wildlife Service/Becky Skiba.

The Sargasso Sea, named after its two prevalent seaweed species Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans, is home and refuge to many
species in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean. The Sargasso is actually a unique and naturally occurring ocean gyre system,
says ocean biologist Howard Roe, chair of the Sargasso Sea Commission, a scientific and conservation organization supported by
governments. The sea, encompassing roughly 4 million square miles, is “bounded by the Gulf Stream to the North and West, the
Canary Current to the East, and the North Equatorial Current and Antilles Current to the South,” Roe explains. The Sargasso Sea
is held up as an example of successful but arduous conservation efforts that could come easier with an international legally binding
instrument (ILBI) for the high seas.
The Sargasso Sea has astounding biodiversity, including 26 species of seabirds; great white, basking, mako, tiger, and blue sharks; and
humpback whales, according to Roe. It is also a hub for turtles at different life stages: Roe explains that green, loggerhead, hawks-
bill, and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles “spend their ‘lost years’ in the Sargasso sea, sitting in mats of Sargassum weed, where they are
protected.” Perhaps most iconic, the American eel and the European eel journey thousands of miles to spawn in the Sargasso Sea
for reasons that are still unknown to scientists.
David Freestone, executive secretary of the Sargasso Sea Commission, says that getting the European eel listed as endangered in a
Convention on Migratory Species annex shows how the commission works. The commission produced an eel study and received
support from Monaco, which took the protection proposal to the Convention on Migratory Species for listing.
Kristina Gjerde, who works on the affiliated Sargasso Sea Project, says there have been important conservation achievements, as well
as valuable lessons on which to draw. “The Sargasso Sea was both a place to try to get urgent protection for the measures you could
[get] through existing agreements but also as an experiment [to learn] what you could not get through existing processes,” she says.
She thinks an overarching high-seas instrument would establish the conservation principles and implementing force to improve
and interconnect these existing processes.
Freestone agrees. Although going to the different sectoral bodies, such as the Convention on Migratory Species or the Northwest
Atlantic Fisheries Organization, has produced successes, an overarching high-seas treaty would add consistent guidance and stan-
dards directed to the different authorities on what are the global norms for protecting the high seas. For example, Freestone says
that as it stands now, there is no way to stop the potential harvesting of Sargassum. “A body which would pull it all together and
have some holistic overarching agendas and viewpoints—again, that’s another reason for having this [ILBI] instrument.”
Meanwhile, the Sargasso Sea conservation efforts continue with the means available. “The Sargasso Sea is an iconic place because of
the combination of oceanography and biology,” Roe explains. He adds that its ecology influences the coupled atmosphere–oceans
system. “In the Sargasso Sea, we can observe how the global ocean works and how it is changing. It is a special place.”

extinction, more resilient to shocks more diverse, more abundant life, we Guillen-Grillo also thinks the time is
and catastrophes, and better able are definitely going to be better off in right for action. “This agreement is going
to cope with background stresses, terms of coping with the stresses of a to be, I think, the most important agree-
Roberts says, “so if we have richer, changing planet.” ment since we adopted [the Convention

718 BioScience • September 2016 / Vol. 66 No. 9

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/66/9/713/1753986
http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org
by guest
on 02 February 2018

on the Law of the Sea] because of the
area it covers,” she says. The negotiators
will have to be thorough and dedicated,
given the many stakeholders to consider
and the complex issues of who will
be enforcing what. But, Guillen-Grillo
asserts, “This is a moment in which
we can really do something very, very
important and we can be happy that this
is happening on our watch.”
Richard Blaustein is a Washington, DC–based
freelance science and environmental journalist.
On Twitter, he can be followed at @richblaustein.
http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/66/9/713/1753986
by guest
on 02 February 2018
Feature
Further reading.
Long MC, Deutsch C, Ito T. 2016. Finding forced trends in oceanic oxygen. Global
Biogeochemical Cycles 30: 381–397. doi:10.1002/2015GB005310
O’Leary BC, Winther-Janson M, Bainbridge J, Aitken J, Hawkins JP, Roberts C. 2016.
Effective coverage targets for ocean protection. Conservation Letters. doi:10.1111/
conl.12247
Ramirez-Llodra E, et al. 2011. Man and the last great wilderness: Human impact on
the deep sea. PLOS ONE 6 (art. e22588). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022588
United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea. 2016. First Global
Integrated Marine Assessment (First World Ocean Assessment). United Nations
Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea. (13 July 2016; www.un.org/
depts/los/global_reporting/WOA_RegProcess.htm)
September 2016 / Vol. 66 No. 9 • BioScience 719