The High Seas Treaty enters a wartime ocean

On January 17, 2026, the High Seas Treaty — the first international legal framework for protecting biodiversity in international waters — entered into force. Eighty-one parties ratified it. It promises marine protected areas on the high seas for the first time in human history. The United States did not ratify it. Six weeks later, the United States is party to closing the Strait of Hormuz — one of the most critical marine corridors on Earth — through military action. The ocean that the treaty s ...