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OCEANOGRAPHY

Chile Becomes the First Country to Ratify the High Seas Treaty

High Seas Treaty
Chile became the first country to ratify the historic High Seas Treaty adopted at the UN in 2023

PUBLISHED JAN 19, 2024 9:32 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

Almost four months after the High Seas Treaty opened for signing at the UN General Assembly, Chile has become the first country to ratify the historic ocean conservation agreement. On Tuesday, Chile’s Senate unanimously approved the High Seas Treaty, officially known as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty (BBNJ).

The treaty sets up a procedure to establish large-scale marine protected areas in the high seas, which cover nearly two-thirds of the world’s oceans. The goal is to facilitate reaching the target of conserving 30 percent of land and sea by 2030, agreed by UN member states in December 2022 within the Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

While commenting on the Senate’s approval vote, Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren said the action confirms Chile’s strong focus on the oceans. Chile was among the UN member states that showed a strong political commitment for BBNJ adoption, while it was still in the negotiation stage.

Led by its President Gabriel Boric, Chile proposed the port city of Valparaíso, located 68 miles from Santiago, as the candidate to host the Treaty Secretariat.

Chile’s move to ratify the treaty has been welcomed by environmental campaign groups among them Greenpeace International.

“Chile has been a key country during all the years of negotiating this treaty. This is an achievement for the thousands of Chileans who called for the protection of oceans. We congratulate the action of the congress,” said Estefanía González, deputy director of Greenpeace Chile campaigns.

For the treaty to enter into force, 59 other countries are needed to ratify the treaty by 2025. This timing is to ensure the globally agreed target of protecting 30 percent of the oceans by 2030 is within reach.

The negotiations for the BBNJ treaty had been ongoing since 2004. It was only formally adopted by governments in June 2023 after exhaustive negotiations. The signing of the treaty took place in September, as the first formality before a country moves to ratification. So far, 84 countries have signed the treaty as the first step to ultimate ratification and coming into force.



Monterey Bay Aquarium study shows sea otters helped prevent widespread California kelp forest declines over the past century


After near-extinction, growth of the southern sea otter population helped kelp forests expand by increasing resilience to environmental stressors, including extreme ocean warming


Peer-Reviewed Publication

MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM

Sea otters in kelp 

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A RAFT OF SEA OTTERS (ENHYDRA NEREIS) CONGREGATES OFF THE BACK DECK OF THE MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM IN KELP.

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CREDIT: MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM / TYSON V. RININGER





Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers strengthen the link between sea otters and long-term health of California kelp forests in a new study released today. The paper, published in the journal PLOS Climate, finds that sea otter population growth during the last century enhanced kelp forest resilience in the state. This finding reinforces the importance of conservation and recovery of the threatened southern sea otter and highlights a potential nature-based solution for restoring kelp forests along the California coast, and perhaps beyond.

The study revealed dramatic regional kelp canopy changes over a 100-year period, from 1910 to 2016. During this time there was a significant increase in kelp forest canopy along the central coast, the only region of California where southern sea otters survived after being hunted nearly to extinction for their fur in the 1800s. At the century scale, the species’ favorable impact on kelp forests along the central coast nearly compensated for kelp losses along both northern and southern California resulting in a slight overall decline statewide during this period.

“Our study showed that kelp forests are more extensive and resilient to climate change where sea otters have reoccupied the California coastline during the last century. Where sea otters are absent, kelp forests have declined dramatically. In fact, we found sea otter population density as the strongest predictor of change in kelp canopy coverage across this hundred-year span,” said lead author Teri Nicholson, Senior Research Biologist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Otter Program.  

Aquarium scientists used historical surveys of kelp forests dating back to the early 1900s to perform detailed estimates of canopy extent, biomass, and carbon storage – while correcting for annual variation and differences in survey methods. This allowed the scientists to examine California’s kelp forest trends over a longer time period, going back more than 60 years before available data from modern surveys based on aerial or satellite imagery. The team then compared the corrected and conservative historical estimates to contemporary datasets and used a machine learning framework to assess the dominant drivers of change over the last century.

“The use of historical maps provided an important opportunity to help us examine long-term kelp forest trends,” said Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Otter Program Manager, Jess Fujii. “This broader view is important for understanding trends related to climate change, and developing effective science-based conservation strategies.” 

Statewide, the data showed only a six percent decline in kelp canopy from 1910 to 2016. Regional changes, however, proved more sizable. Kelp canopy decreased in northern and southern regions by 63 and 52 percent, respectively. It increased nearly everywhere throughout the central coast, contrastingly, gaining an estimated 56 percent of kelp forest coverage.

While the modeling showed sea otter population density was the strongest predictor of change  in kelp coverage, it also identified other factors, including extreme marine heat due to climate change.

“Today, extreme heat in the ocean is intense and persistent. Beginning a decade ago, this threat now affects more than half the ocean's surface,” said Kyle Van Houtan, a Research Scientist at Duke University, and senior author of the study. “This is a major problem for kelp forests as chronic temperature stress undermines kelp growth and health. Ecosystems are complex, and to give them their best chance at surviving these extreme changes, they need all their component parts. Sea otters, of course, are hugely influential for Pacific kelp forests. Historical studies like this are a crucial demonstration of this dynamic over the long term.”

Healthy kelp forest ecosystems provide many benefits, including serving as nursery grounds for fisheries, reducing coastal erosion from storms, and contributing to carbon storage. The study indicates returning otters to areas of their historical range could help recover kelp forests and restore their benefits in more places along the California coast.

About Monterey Bay Aquarium

With a mission to inspire conservation of the ocean, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is the most admired aquarium in the United States, a leader in science education, and a voice for ocean conservation through comprehensive programs in marine science and public policy. Everything we do works in concert to protect the future of our blue planet. More information at MontereyBayAquarium.org.

Researchers pump brakes on ‘blue acceleration’ harming oceans


Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

Marine image 

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CREDIT: THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

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CREDIT: THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND





Protecting the world’s oceans against accelerating damage from human activities could be cheaper and take up less space than previously thought, new research has found.

The University of Queensland’s Professor Anthony Richardson collaborated on the study, which looks to halt the rapid decline of marine biodiversity from expanding industrial activities in marine areas beyond national jurisdictions (ABNJ).

“This ‘blue acceleration’ as we call it, has seen a greater diversity of stakeholders interested in ABNJs, such as the high seas and the international seabed beyond exclusive economic zones,” Professor Richardson said.

“This has led to an issue where current marine protection methods look at each sector separately – such as fishing, shipping, and deep-sea mining industries – all of which have their own suite of impacts on species, communities, and ecosystems.”

In response, researchers assessed the design of different networks of marine protection areas (MPA) across the Indian Ocean that target rich biodiversity areas with minimal impact on profitable human activity.

“Essentially, we assessed the potential trade-offs associated with including multiple stakeholders in a cross-sectoral, as opposed to sector-specific, protected area network, for ABNJs in the Indian Ocean,” Professor Richardson said.

“First, we created three sector-specific plans – involving fishing, shipping, and mining separately – to identify optimal locations for strict, no-take, MPAs.

“We then created a cross-sectoral no-take plan that minimises the opportunity cost to all stakeholders simultaneously, looking at the overall picture with each stakeholder in mind.

“After generating these plans, we compared the three sector-specific solutions, as well as their sum, to the cross sectoral solution.”

Lead researcher from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Léa Fourchault, said the cross-sectoral approach met the same conservation targets at much lower additional costs for each stakeholder than if all sector-specific plans are implemented without coordination.

“For example, the fishing sector might lose 20 per cent of its potential revenue under the cross-sectoral plan, but it would lose 54 per cent if all sector-specific plans were implemented simultaneously without coordination,” Ms Fourchault said.  

“This was consistent for the shipping and mining sectors, with the shipping sector now losing two per cent, instead of 26 per cent of its potential revenue, and the mining sector now losing one per cent instead of close to eight per cent.

“Our results also show that we can reduce the size of MPAs from 25 per cent of the spatial plan to eight per cent while meeting the same conservation objectives.

“This would still achieve 30 per cent coverage for important biodiversity features, including key life-cycle areas for marine megafauna, areas of biological and ecological interest, and areas important to deep-sea ecosystems, such as seamounts, vents, and plateaus.”

Researchers believe the cross-sectoral approach can be a first step to implementing the conservation objectives of the recently signed United Nations High Seas Treaty.

“The code from our research is available online and can be used by scientists, conservationists and politicians alike – and can be applied to any ocean on Earth,” Ms Fourchault said. 

“Ultimately, the goal is not only to minimise conflicts between conservationists and multiple industries, but also to ensure marine life is protected against negative cumulative impacts from all three industries simultaneously.”

This research is published in One Earth.

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