Journey to Protect the Lost World

The high seas are international waters outside of national jurisdictions – so the waters that do not fall within the governance of any individual country.

The responsibility for protecting the high seas is outside any single state’s jurisdiction, but once ratified, the Global Ocean Treaty will allow for areas of the high seas like the Lord Howe Rise and South Tasman Sea region to be protected.

To create a large-scale ocean sanctuary to protect the Lord Howe Rise/South Tasman Sea region, states must create a proposal and submit this to the future Ocean Treaty Conference of Parties (CoP).

The ocean is one interconnected body of water. 

Greenpeace is campaigning to protect ocean life in international waters – also known as the high seas.' However, we consider the Lord Howe Island Marine Park in Australian waters as a ‘gateway’ to understanding the broader marine ecosystems of the Lord Howe Rise and South Tasman Sea region we’re seeking to secure a marine sanctuary in as the ocean is one interconnected place, despite the boundaries humans draw on a map.

Lord Howe Rise is a vast underwater plateau in the south west Pacific Ocean that runs through parts of the Coral Sea and Tasman Sea and forms part of the hidden continent of Zealandia. The plateau extends from Australian waters, to south west of New Caledonia, to the Challenger Plateau west of New Zealand.  

The areas we are looking to protect under the high seas treaty are in international waters, including the ‘Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas’ (EBSAs) of Northern Lord Howe Ridge Petrel Foraging Grounds and the South Tasman Sea.

Seamounts are underwater mountains which create important habitat for ecosystems rich with species diversity – often called biodiversity hotspots.

Seamounts are massive underwater mountains that rise hundreds or even thousands of feet from the ocean floor. Primarily formed by volcanic activity, they can be found in all ocean basins around the world.

These unique structures create vital habitats for a wide range of marine life, including corals, mollusks, crustaceans, fish, and marine mammals. Seamounts also attract many migratory and highly mobile species such as tuna, sharks, sea turtles, and whales. Despite their global presence, less than 0.1% of the world’s seamounts have been explored.

A marine protected area is a tool for protecting parts of the ocean. It can take many forms depending on how the legislation is written. Until the Global Ocean Treaty enters into force, there is no global mechanism for creating MPAs in international waters (which cover over 70% of the ocean). Greenpeace is campaigning for marine sanctuaries with the highest protection.

There are four Levels of Protection in The MPA Guide which Greenpeace aligns with:

1. Fully Protected: No impact from extractive or destructive activities is allowed, and all abatable impacts are minimized.
2. Highly Protected: Only light extractive activities are allowed that have low total impact, and all other abatable impacts are minimized.
3. Lightly Protected: Some protection of biodiversity exists, but extractive or destructive activities that can have moderate to significant impact are allowed.
4. Minimally Protected: Extensive extraction and other activities with high total impact are allowed, but the site can still be considered an MPA under the IUCN protected area definition and provides some conservation benefit.

The South Tasman Sea and Lord Howe Rise are two linked sites in the South Pacific, located between Australia and New Zealand waters in an area of international waters sometimes called ‘the Ditch’. The South Tasman Sea consists of a deep abyssal plain with steep-sided seamounts that reach almost to the surface, and Lord Howe Rise is another complex chain of seamounts leading to a vast plateau to the north. 

Lord Howe Rise is an underwater plateau and part of the submerged continent of Zealandia, a volcanic lost world running through parts of the Coral Sea, down to the Tasman Sea.

The South Tasman Sea is to the south west of Lord Howe Rise and is characterized by very high densities of seabirds, and foraging areas for numerous breeding and non-breeding birds. It also has seven seamounts within it which create thriving hotspots for marine life.

This site is an Ecologically and Biologically Sensitive Marine Areas as defined under the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity. It is also among the High Seas Alliance’s recommendations for the first protected areas under the new Treaty

There are any creatures, great and small, that call these regions home including:

• Acorn worms
• Sea pens
• Shrimp
• Tuna, including bigeye tuna and Southern bluefin tuna
• Swordfish
• Sharks
• Humpback whales
• Southern right whales
• A high diversity of fish species, including orange roughy, oreos, alfonsino and bluenose, and
• Some of the highest density of seabirds in the world, including 14 albatross and 6 petrel species

In 2024 and during the trip to Lord Howe Island, we’re calling on the Australian Government to do two things:

1. Ratify the Global Ocean Treaty by the end of 2024 (and by the federal election!) 
2. Lead the development of a fully and highly protected high seas marine sanctuary in the Tasman Sea between Australian and New Zealand under the UN Global Ocean Treaty.

In 2023, Greenpeace published the report 30x30: From Global Ocean Treaty to Protection at Sea which outlines three key sites which are strong candidates for protection under the Global Ocean Treaty: Emperor Seamounts of the North Pacific, Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic, and Lord Howe Rise/South Tasman Sea in the South Pacific.

These sites all are Ecologically and Biologically Sensitive Marine Areas (EBSAs) as defined under the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity. They also are among the High Seas Alliance’s recommendations for the first protected areas under the new Treaty, and progress towards protection in each is politically mature enough to make them prime contenders to be among the first ocean sanctuaries created using the Treaty.

These are not the only potential ocean sanctuary sites we will work on in the coming years, but we use them as case studies in this report to help illustrate the pathway to protection for ecologically important marine areas that could realistically be protected soon after the Treaty has been ratified.