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The United States and four other Arctic nations have tentatively agreed to prevent commercial fishing in the high Arctic.
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The US military carried out freedom of navigation operations challenging the maritime claims of China, Iran and 10 other countries last year, asserting its transit rights in defiance of efforts to restrict passage, a Pentagon report indicated yesterday.
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The prospect of a race to the bottom of the ocean – a 21st-century high seas version of the Klondike gold rush – has alarmed scientists. The oceans, which make up 45% of the world’s surface, are already degraded by overfishing, industrial waste, plastic debris and climate change, which is altering their chemistry. Now comes a new extractive industry – and scientists say governments are not prepared.
[ More ]A new international agreement is needed to police the exploitation of the deep ocean because of the rising threats of deep-sea mining and bottom trawling for fish, say scientists. Speakers at a symposium this month (16 February) urged the UN to negotiate a new treaty for the deep ocean to supplement the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
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China has said its research vessel surveying polymetallic deposits in the Indian Ocean has discovered two hydrothermal and four hydrothermal anomaly areas as the resource-hungry country stepped up efforts to extract minerals from the seabed.
[ More ]US secretary of state John Kerry called for expanding the world’s marine reserves by a factor of 10 on Tuesday, signalling a bolder new US approach to international environmental protection.
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The Economist calls for better international governance of the global oceans commons and its valuable resources. It praises the work being done to promote the UNCLOS regime but argues that more work needs to be done to create new institutions and strengthen existing ones.
[ More ]U.S. officials are heading to Greenland for a three-day meeting to persuade other Arctic nations to place a moratorium on high-seas fishing in the Arctic Ocean, where climate change is melting the permanent ice cap and allowing trawlers in for the first time in human history.
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After the US announced a new Arctic ambassadorship, Chinese media reaffirmed Beijing’s interests in the region.
[ More ]Deep-sea mining is floundering. The leading company in the race to mine the ocean floor has fallen out with its host government, while other projects have been delayed until the environmental effects are better understood.
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