Canada has ratified the High Seas Treaty, joining a legally binding framework for protecting ocean life beyond national borders. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the step on Sept. 23 at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, along with new funding to carry it out.
At a glance
- Ratification: Canada signed the agreement in March 2024 C.E. and ratified it on Sept. 23, according to The Globe and Mail.
- Funding: The Prime Minister’s office committed 24.4 million Canadian dollars over five years, plus 1.8 million in ongoing funding, to put the agreement into practice.
- Coverage: The agreement applies to the high seas and the international seabed, which together span nearly half of Earth’s surface.
What the High Seas Treaty does
Countries adopted the agreement in 2023 C.E., and 144 states and the European Union signed it before signing closed, according to the U.N. treaty office. It took effect worldwide on Jan. 17, 2026 C.E., 120 days after the 60th country ratified, the United Nations said.
The treaty sets up a process for assessing the environmental effects of activities on the high seas. It also lets countries propose marine protected areas in international waters. And it sets rules for sharing the benefits of marine genetic resources, which are organisms and compounds found in the deep ocean.
Canada says it will work with other governments, scientists, industry, civil society, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities to carry out its commitments.
What Canada’s move adds
Canada joins as a latecomer. It took about two and a half years to move from signing to ratifying, and the treaty was already in force, so Canada was not among the first 60 countries. By March 2026 C.E., 86 parties had ratified, according to law firm Blank Rome.
For countries that join after entry into force, the treaty applies 30 days after they deposit their ratification. That puts Canada’s start date in late October.
“Canada is an ocean nation,” Carney said. Canada also co-chairs the OceanEye International Alliance with the European Union. On the same day, it pledged 82 million Canadian dollars over five years to the Global Ocean Observing System, which tracks ocean conditions.
What comes next
The first conference of the parties must meet before Jan. 17, 2027 C.E. That meeting will set the treaty’s rules and decide where its secretariat sits. Countries are also expected to discuss early proposals for marine protected areas, according to the policy institute IDDRI.
Only parties to the treaty will have a say at that meeting, which gives new members like Canada a direct voice in how the rules are written. Carney also said Canada will host the Our Ocean Conference in Halifax next spring.
What remains unresolved
Only 1.5% of the high seas is protected today, The Globe and Mail reported. The treaty is a framework, not a finished system. Protected areas must still be proposed and approved through its process.
Major ocean powers are also missing. As of March 2026 C.E., the United States had signed the treaty but not ratified it, according to Blank Rome.
Canada’s step still adds funding, a seat at the table, and one more country bound by the rules. It joins a growing list of ocean and marine protection wins that give life beneath the waves a stronger legal footing.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Prime Minister of Canada
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- UN member states agree to landmark deal to protect life in international waters
- The high seas treaty enters into force, giving two-thirds of the ocean its first legal protection
- The Good News for Humankind archive on marine conservation
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