A new treaty to help protect our precious oceans, increase conservation, and protect the critters that live under the water has been agreed on by more than 190 countries. 

The new treaty establishes an official mechanism for creating more marine protected areas in international waters (or “high seas”) for the first time. Currently, just 1.2% of Earth’s high seas are protected, according to conservation nonprofit super group the High Seas Alliance.

The agreement, which still needs to be ratified by the U.N. to go into effect, establishes a legal framework for upping that protected percentage to a full 30% of the world’s marine ecosystems. That 30% benchmark was initially outlined in a separate United Nations biodiversity pledge in December 2022, but this agreement makes meeting that goal much more plausible.

In addition, the agreement funnels more money into ocean conservation and outlines terms for use and sharing of scientific information and technology. It also dictates new requirements surrounding transparency and international marine environmental monitoring.

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