The High Seas, international waters that lie beyond any country’s jurisdiction, comprise nearly two-thirds of the world’s ocean. These vast open-ocean and deep-sea environments are ecologically vital and culturally significant to Pacific peoples and seafarers around the world. Unfortunately, they have long been neglected in terms of effective governance and conservation. While still amongst the wildest regions on the planet, today the high seas are littered with plastic; face significant illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; stark human labor violations; few enforceable protections for wildlife and ecosystems; destructive fishing practices; acidification, and ocean basin-scale changes under the impacts of climate change. A new threat also looms – the unknown impacts of industrial-scale commercial deep seabed mining, which could be authorized as soon as June 2023. Our panel presents a new vision for the high seas, one that is championed by Pacific people and governments, as ambassadors of the largest expanses of ocean on the planet.
