The wide open possibility of the high seas

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

The high seas — water 200 nautical miles from shore — are an ocean of possibility for industries looking to cash in. But without proper oversight, the problems could be as deep as the ocean itself.

Could an international agreement help?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:07.0	This is the indicator from Planet Money, I'm Darian Woods.
0:15.1	And I'm Paddy Hirsch.
0:16.4	The high seas are those waters far from shore, 200 nautical miles in fact from shore, that
0:21.9	are not governed by any country.
0:24.1	Under international law, everyone shares them, but no one owns them.
0:28.2	No one has responsibility for them.
0:30.7	That sounds like a nautical riddle.
0:32.2	What is owned by nobody, but everybody shares.
0:34.8	The high seas.
0:35.8	That's right.
0:36.8	And this of course means that anyone can use the high seas, and pretty much anyone
0:40.2	can abuse them too.
0:42.0	But after five years of negotiations, United Nations member states have finally come to
0:47.1	an agreement about how the resources offered by the high seas should be shared.
0:52.2	The accord has the very multilateral diplomacy name, biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction
0:57.8	agreement.
0:58.8	Yeah, we'll use BB&J for short.
1:00.7	Nearly 200 have endorsed the treaty, and no wonder the high seas offer an enormous economic
1:06.6	opportunity.
1:07.6	Yeah, the big ones are fishing and mining.
1:10.3	On the fish front, as we have depleted stocks of species like cod and tuna in various coastal
	...

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