this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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Top scientists call for permanent ban on high seas exploitation (news.exeter.ac.uk)
submitted 3 weeks ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/science@beehaw.org
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Extractive activity in international waters – including fishing, seabed mining, and oil and gas exploitation – should be banned forever, according to top scientists.

The high seas, the vast international waters beyond national jurisdiction, remain largely unprotected and are increasingly threatened.

Writing in the journal Nature, Professor Callum Roberts and co-authors argue that stopping all extractive activity in international waters would prevent irreversible damage to marine biodiversity, the climate, and ocean equity.

This would also be a decisive step toward achieving the goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, as set out in the Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in 2022.

“Life in the high seas is vital to the ocean’s ability to store carbon and is too important to lose,” said lead author Professor Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of Exeter and lead researcher with the Convex Seascape Survey. “This paper makes the case that we must stop extractive activities in the high seas permanently, to protect the climate, restore biodiversity and safeguard ocean function for future generations.”

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[–] alyaza@beehaw.org 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

associated article in Nature:

Why we should protect the high seas from all extraction, forever: Exploitation of the high seas risks doing irreversible damage to biodiversity, climate stability and ocean equity. A consensus must be built now to save them.