Dr Anjani Ganase reports on the status of an international agreement to protect biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ. Here’s what you need to know.
What does biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction mean?
Most countries are responsible for a stretch of ocean territory that extends up to a maximum of 200 nautical miles from their coasts. Trinidad and Tobago is responsible for an economic exclusion zone (EEZ) that mostly extends to the north and the east of our coasts, which is 15 times our combined land masses. The US, as another example, has the largest EEZ in the world and is larger than the 50 states combined. The marine areas that fall under the jurisdiction of countries make up about 42 per cent of the ocean. Within the lines of jurisdiction, all activities fall under the sovereign rights of the country. While many countries have signed treaties for conservation, much of what goes on is governed by local legislation. This designation was derived under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) established in 1982.
What is left is the open ocean making up the remainder 58 per cent; this area is owned by none but is shared by all and so too with the responsibility of conserving it. These activities are governed by the legislature under the UNCLOS.
What exists beyond borders?
The vast open ocean is home to populations of marine life that use the currents as highways for seasonal migrations. Marine mammals (dolphins, whales), sharks, manta rays, marine turtles, tuna, even sea birds move thousands of kilometres across the open oceans and seas. Whales raise their young in the warm tropics before moving to the poles to feed. Leatherback turtles that are born on the shores of TT roam as far as the Indian ocean or the north Atlantic before coming back to the east coast of Trinidad to breed and nest.
The deep sea defines the ocean below 200 metres where light is absent and makes up about 75 per cent of the ocean. Despite being such an expansive habitat, the deep ocean is less explored than the surface of the moon with little known of the extent of its biodiversity. Hotspots for deep sea biodiversity occur around hydrothermal vent fields and seamounts formed from volcanic eruptions and commonly found along the mid-ocean ridges. Meanwhile, extremely slow growing coral and sponge reefs provide unique habitat for deep ocean residents. Some scientific estimates speculate that there may be over a million deep sea species yet to be discovered.
The open ocean is also home to microscopic and abundant marine algae called phytoplankton that is the foundation of the ocean food web, fed upon by zooplankton then up and up the chain to fish and larger species. Phytoplankton is one of the largest consumers of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, equivalent to terrestrial forests. As the ocean is also a major regulator of the world’s climate and re-circulator of the world’s water, healthy marine life is inextricably intertwined with the physical and chemical health of the world’s ocean (all oceans are connecte
