As a key delegate for the Sargasso Sea Commission, Fae Sapsford spotlighted Bermuda’s pivotal role in global efforts to protect the high seas

The Sargasso Sea Commission issued the following media release.

Fae Sapsford, delegate for the Sargasso Sea Commission, spoke as part of three events centered on the conservation of the Sargasso Sea at the international conference.

Fae Sapsford, marine research fellow for the Sargasso Sea Commission, attended the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, from June 9-13. At the conference, the Sargasso Sea Commission shared lessons learned from a decade of work collaborating to conserve the Sargasso Sea.

“The Sargasso Sea Commission has a lot of experience to share on collaboration for the conservation of a high seas site, including how to build a robust science case for the site, how to engage stakeholders for its conservation, and how to raise global awareness of the need for its protection. We hope these lessons learned from our work will support the swift and effective implementation of the BBNJ agreement when it comes into force,” said Ms. Sapsford.

The Sargasso Sea Commission along with other high seas projects delivered an event in the green zone of the high-level conference, which was attended by governments, intergovernmental organizations, academia, NGOs, and more.

‘From Treaty to Action: Multi-Stakeholder Cooperation for the High Seas’ showcased the voices and roles of different high seas sectors and communities to ensure more harmonious cooperation for ocean conservation. The event was co-organised by the Government of Bermuda, the Government of the UK, the Government of the Azores, and others.

“High seas areas are difficult to protect because they are not owned by any one country – instead they are owned by all countries together, even landlocked ones, and all people on earth simultaneously; those that are here now, and future generations that deserve to benefit from the ecosystem services they provide,” said Ms. Sapsford.

“The system of governance for the high seas is fragmented and often does not prioritize conservation. It has been called ‘an unfinished agenda’. The Sargasso Sea Commission is unique because it is a framework for voluntary collaboration – it is a group of governments and scientific experts getting together to say that we should be doing more to conserve this iconic area – and working to make that happen,” said Ms. Sapsford.

Bermuda has always been a champion of the conservation of the Sargasso Sea. The Sargasso Sea Commission (SSC) was established in 2014 following the signing in Bermuda of the Hamilton Declaration on Collaboration for the Conservation of the Sargasso Sea.

The declaration has ten government signatories: the Azores, the Bahamas, Bermuda, BVI, Canada, Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Monaco, the UK and the US. It brings together expert scientific Commissioners working in their independent capacities, appointed by the Government of Bermuda, along with focal points from the ten governmental signatories of the Hamilton Declaration to strengthen the stewardship of the Sargasso Sea.

The Sargasso Sea Commission has partnered with organisations such as the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic

Tuna, the North-west Atlantic Fisheries Organisation, the International Maritime Organisation and more to improve the conservation of the Sargasso Sea.

Adopted in 2023, the BBNJ agreement, or its official title ‘Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction,’ will allow for internationally legally binding marine protected areas to be established on the high seas for the first time, among other reforms to the high seas legal regime. The agreement requires 60 ratifications from states to come into force.

“There was a lot of momentum for the ratification of the BBNJ agreement at UNOC,” said Ms. Sapsford. “The agreement reached 50 ratifications (plus the EU, which does not count towards the ratification number because it is not a state) at the conference, so we are now just 10 ratifications away from the agreement being able to come into force.

“At the conference, Ambassador Olivier Poivre d’Arvor reported that following high level conversations with the French Government, he anticipated the 60 ratifications to be reached by late September this year, allowing the agreement to enter into force in late January, with the first conference of the parties to take place before the end of next year.”

As an overseas territory Bermuda cannot ratify the agreement itself, but it can consent to having the agreement extended to itself through the UK when the UK ratifies. The UK government is currently in the process of consulting with the Crown Dependencies and UK Overseas Territories over the extension of the Agreement to them upon or following UK ratification.

The Sargasso Sea Commission produced a science case for the Sargasso Sea’s protection in 2011. This is now being updated with funding from the Global Environment Facility Common Oceans Progamme, and the French Facility for Global Environment ‘SARGADOM’ project.

The SSC will produce a socio-ecosystem diagnostic analysis (SEDA) laying out the ecological and economic importance of the Sargasso Sea, along with human impacts upon the ecosystem. This will be the basis for discussion of a strategic action programme for the conservation of the Sargasso Sea, which will be agreed by stakeholders, including signatory governments.

“A variety of measures are being discussed by our signatory governments. Due to the work of the Commission, some seamounts in the North-west Atlantic Fisheries Organisation area overlapping with the Sargasso Sea Commission area of collaboration are already closed to bottom trawling, which can have catastrophic environmental impacts.

“We have also discussed voluntary measures for ships transiting the area with representatives from the shipping industry – we could ask them to record sightings of whales and other megafauna, and slow down when they are in known whale migratory areas. We are also working with the parties to the Convention on Migratory Species to finalize a single species action plan for the European eel, a critically endangered fish which only spawns in the Sargasso Sea,” Ms. Sapsford said.

Ms. Sapsford also spoke at two other events on behalf of the Sargasso Sea Commission at the conference, one on the use of the International Maritime Organization ‘Particularly Sensitive Sea Area’ tool for the conservation of the high seas, and one on BBNJ and ocean governance solutions to the triple planetary crisis with the World Maritime University Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, where Ms. Sapsford is completing her PhD.

At the conference, the Sargasso Sea Commission also collaborated with Jean-Pierre Rouja, Sargasso Sea Ambassador, Founder of the Nonsuch Expeditions and co-founder of BioQuest, as well as with the official Bermuda Government delegation, including Minister Jache Adams, Minister of Public Works and Environment, and Dr Tammy Warren, Senior Marine Resources Officer, Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The Sargasso Sea Commission and 10% for the Ocean, with support from the Nonsuch Expeditions hosted a screening of ‘Ocean with David Attenborough’ ahead of the conference, which was attended by Minister of Public Works and Environment, Jache Adams, the Hon. Kim Wilkerson, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, and Ms. Antoinette Hurtado, U.S. Consul General to Bermuda.