The Sargasso Sea Commission shared its message of conservation at the UN Ocean Conference in France this month.

Fae Sapsford, a marine research fellow for the SSC, served as a delegate at the conference attended by governments, intergovernmental organisations and others.

Ms Sapsford said: “The SSC has a lot of experience to share on collaboration for the conservation of a high seas site, including how to build a robust science case for the site, how to engage stakeholders for its conservation, and how to raise global awareness of the need for its protection.

“We hope these lessons learnt from our work will support the swift and effective implementation of the BBNJ agreement when it comes into force.”

The BBNJ agreement, officially titled 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”, was adopted in 2023.

The agreement would allow for internationally legally binding marine protected areas to be established on the high seas for the first time, but it must be ratified by at least 60 states to come into effect.

The Bermuda Government collaborated with the Governments of the UK and the Azores to host ‘From Treaty to Action: Multi-Stakeholder Co-operation for the High Seas’ at the conference, which was intended to showcase the voices and roles of different high seas sectors and communities.

Ms Sapsford said that high seas areas are difficult to protect because they are not owned by any single country.

“The system of governance for the high seas is fragmented and often does not prioritise conservation,” she said. “It has been called ‘an unfinished agenda’.

“The SSC is unique because it is a framework for voluntary collaboration. It is a group of governments and scientific experts getting together to say that we should be doing more to conserve this iconic area and working to make that happen.”

Ms Sapsford said the BBNJ agreement is now ten ratifications away from coming into force and that it was anticipated that the goal would be reached by late September this year.

The SSC intends to produce an analysis which will lay out the ecological and economic importance of the Sargasso Sea, along with human impacts upon the ecosystem.

This will be the basis for discussion of a strategic action programme to protect the region, which will be agreed by stakeholders including signatory governments.

“A variety of measures are being discussed by our signatory governments,” Ms Sapsford said.

“Due to the work of the Commission, some seamounts in the North-west Atlantic Fisheries Organisation area overlapping with the Sargasso Sea Commission area of collaboration are already closed to bottom trawling, which can have catastrophic environmental impacts.

"We have also discussed voluntary measures for ships transiting the area with representatives from the shipping industry. We could ask them to record sightings of whales and other megafauna, and slow down when they are in known whale migratory areas.

“We are also working with the parties to the Convention on Migratory Species to finalise a single species action plan for the European eel, a critically endangered fish which only spawns in the Sargasso Sea.”