Top scientists call for permanent ban on high seas exploitation

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.”

The paper highlights four reasons for a ban:

1. Climate stability: The high seas are Earth’s largest and most secure carbon sink. Protecting them is critical to preserving the biological and nutrient cycles that draw down and keep atmospheric CO₂ in check.
2. Biodiversity and fisheries: Species such as tuna, sharks, marlin, squid and krill, which are currently targeted in high seas fishing, would have a chance to recover and spill over into national waters. This would support food security and fairer access to resources, particularly for lower income nations in the Global South.
3. Oil and gas: There is no climate justification to exploit fossil fuels in the high seas, given existing reserves on land and in national waters, and rapid development in green energy generation.
4. Deep-sea mining: The industry poses uncontrollable and irreversible risks to environment and climate, despite claims the minerals are essential for green technologies. Much larger, proven land-based mineral reserves exist that can be exploited with less risk, better governance and greater transparency.

​​“The high seas are a critical regulator of Earth’s climate system,” said Professor Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “Protecting them is essential to preserving global stability and avoiding dangerous tipping points that threaten life on Earth.”

“This is not a fringe environmental demand,” added Mark Lynas, co-author and climate journalist. “Ending exploitation in the high seas is a scientifically grounded, economically sensible and morally urgent decision if we want to avert ecological collapse.”

While the UN High Seas Treaty, announced in June 2023, offers a pathway to greater protection, its implementation will take years. The authors argue that urgent action is needed now. A full and permanent ban on extractive use, they suggest, is both feasible and necessary, echoing the successful precedent set for Antarctica in the 1950s.

The article includes contributions from some of the world’s most influential scientists and thinkers, including:

• Sylvia Earle, pioneering oceanographer, National Geographic Explorer and Founder and Director of Mission Blue
• Johan Rockström, leading climate scientist and Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
• Daniel Pauly leading fisheries scientist and Founder and Director of Sea Around Us at the Institute for the Ocean and Fisheries, University of British Columbia
• Jessica Meeuwig is a global leader in open ocean ecosystems and Wen Family Chair in Conservation, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia Oceans Institute
• Rashid Sumaila, ocean economist and Killam Professor and Canada Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Ocean and Fisheries Economics at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries & School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, The University of British Columbia
• Stuart Pimm, global leader in biodiversity science and Doris Duke Professor of Conservation at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University
• Mark Lynas, award-winning science writer and science advisor with the Climate Vulnerable Forum
• Andrew Forrest, mining executive, ocean scientist, philanthropist and advocate of green economic transition, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Fortescue, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Minderoo Foundation, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
• Ove Hoegh-Guldberg FAA, leading expert in climate change and the ocean and Professor Emeritus at the School of the Environment, University of Queensland

The article is grounded in the scientific foundations of the Convex Seascape Survey, a global research partnership between the University of Exeter, Blue Marine Foundation and Convex Group Limited. It is the most ambitious programme to date focused on understanding how seabed ecosystems contribute to carbon storage and how best to protect them.

Published in the journal Nature, the article is entitled: “Why we should protect the high seas from all extraction, forever.”