After years of stalled negotiations, China has ended its opposition to the world’s largest marine park off Antarctica - part of a wider trend towards increased Chinese involvement in global governance.
Australia has the third largest marine jurisdiction in the world, a vast ocean territory that contains important natural and biological resources. And it needs protecting.
An illegal fishing vessel caught off the coast of Sierra Leone, a region where illegal fishing is a serious problem.
Reuters
The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is huge win for preservation, but it also poses outsized management challenges for the National Park Service.
Filipino fishers in the South China Sea.
EPA/FRANCIS R. MALASIG
Not all of the world’s coral reefs are in dire straits. Reef fisheries tend to do better in areas with strong ownership rights, and where people are closely involved in managing their local reefs.
The Chinese icebreaker Xue Long sails from Fremantle Harbour on its way home from Antarctica.
Bahnfrend/Wikimedia Commons
Australia and China both have a keen interest in the frozen continent. And while they don’t agree on everything, there is great scope for scientific collaboration.
The open oceans are the world’s “wild west”, falling outside any nation’s jurisdiction. UN negotiations are aiming to draft new laws for the high seas.