by Guy Standing In 1982, after many years of tortured negotiations, the United Nations established the Convention on the Law of the Sea, known ever since as UNCLOS. It came into effect in 1994, when enough countries had ratified it. When signed, the UN Secretary General [at the time Javier…

Raiders of the Deep — The deep ocean floor is our planet’s final frontier. It is also the most hostile environment on Earth. Scientists have yet to discover what lives in its profound ecosystems, but governments and corporations, driven by the green economy, are already tussling over its riches. Beyond regulation and independent oversight, a…

Three fundamental questions as a framework for change This week the multi-part RESCUE series continues with a breakdown of a 2020 Report by the World Resource Institute High Level Panel for Sustainable Ocean Economy that offered some revised definitions and pathways toward a more sustainable future, including three fundamental questions as a framework for change: 1. How will…

Will the Arctic 7, the Permanent Participants, and Observers promote and uphold the Arctic values implicit within the 1996 Ottawa Declaration? — Geopolitics, May 15, 2023 Mia Bennett, Cryopolitics On Thursday, Norway took over the Arctic Council chairmanship from Russia, which had presided over the region’s most important multilateral body for the past two years. The transfer of leadership took place in a hybrid meeting hosted in Salekhard, which the seven other member states’ Arctic ambassadors all attended virtually…

Dreamers of a Floating World — by Ian Urbina of The Outlaw Ocean Project The Ocean has long been a metaphor for freedom — the ultimate escape from governments and other people. This episode takes us off the coast of England aboard Sealand, a rogue micronation founded by a quixotic adventurer on an abandoned anti-aircraft platform…

RESCUE SERIES, part 18 — This week we turn toward the topic of finance, focusing on examples that calculate the value of the ocean including ecosystems services, accounting and practices that calculate the value of goods and services, accounting of measured growth, and public acceptance of some the changes required to transform the world we live in. As climate changes and temperatures rise, we are now fully aware of the melting glaciers and substantial freshwater entering the ocean in record volume. A consequence is the release of minerals, carbon, organic material, gases, microbes and bacteria, once frozen in an icy stasis, now released with inevitable change and…

The bio-prospecting rush is heating up — How are we regulating extraction from the ocean and seafloor? Who owns the proprietary rights to marine resources, and what criteria are applied to protect biodiversity, ocean ecosystems and future resource potential to revolutionize medicine and treat disease? As climate changes and temperatures rise, we are now fully aware of the melting glaciers and substantial freshwater entering the ocean in record volume. A consequence is the release of minerals, carbon, organic material, gases, microbes and bacteria, once frozen in an icy stasis, now released with inevitable change and…

Bondage at Sea — by Ian Urbina of The Outlaw Ocean Project Our oceans are running out of fish. As stocks disappear, ships are having to travel farther offshore to fulfill their quotas and margins for profit have become razor thin. As a result, captains increasingly turn to trafficked, debt-bonded and forced labor to…

Even as states and conservation organizations celebrate the new United Nations treaty to protect 30 percent of the high seas by 2030, China is working, in plain sight, to take sovereign control of the world ocean. — Published Apr 12, 2023 by Dr. Ian M. Ralby for Maritime Executive The global presence of China’s “distant water fishing fleet” has garnered substantial attention, particularly since its heightened visibility around the Galapagos Islands in 2020. Most of that attention has centered on concerns about sustainability and allegations of illegal…