| By Laura Millan The deep sea cannot become “the Wild West.” This was United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’ message at the opening of the UN Oceans Conference in Nice, France, this week. Guterres words come months after President Donald Trump issued an executive order expediting the processing of seabed mining applications to extract critical minerals in international waters. The move, which is vying to supersede the UN treaty that governs nations’ use of the ocean, has the potential to cause far-reaching consequences for untouched and biodiverse deep sea ecosystems. It also further tests whether something as vast as the ocean — which takes up 70% of Earth’s surface — can ever be effectively regulated. These issues hung over the conference in the south of France, which drew around 50 heads of state and government. The summit, ending Friday, has succeeded in gaining more commitments from countries to control deep sea mining, harmful fishing practices and marine degradation. But it remains to be seen if promises will lead to action. The deep sea gets some supportMore than 30 countries have endorsed a statement by France to protect the bottom of the ocean and enact a moratorium on deep sea mining. “What we saw in previous years was a push forward for people and countries wanting to race to the depths of the ocean,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the conference. “There needs to be a moratorium – there will be exploration, but no use of the seafloor.” The US is largely absentThe US, which already announced plans to allow for deep sea mining, was not represented in a significant capacity at the conference. The State Department said in a statement earlier this week the country would only send observers, as the administration objects to the conference’s focus on a UN goal for conservation and sustainable use of the oceans and marine resources. Bottom trawling loses subsidies Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization, said in a speech that headway had been made to bring an end to certain unsustainable fishing practices. More than 100 countries have now agreed to work on curbing the $22 billion in subsidies that go toward harmful forms of fishing like bottom trawling, Okonjo-Iweala said. The WTO hopes 10 more countries will ratify the agreement in the next two to three months so that it can be enforced, she said. For years we have had “subsidies doing the wrong thing,” Okonjo-Iweala said. The agreement will “free up these harmful subsidies, that could be repurposed into actually supporting the building up of marine systems and coastal systems and used in a positive way.” High Seas Treaty inches closerThe conference also came close to ratifying a landmark High Seas Treaty that has been years in the making. The agreement would for the first time set standards for establishing marine protected sites in international waters and address other governance issues that are key to protecting aquatic life in areas that lie beyond countries’ jurisdictions. The treaty will only come into force if 60 countries ratify it. This week, more than a dozen more nations did so, bringing the total to 50 by the beginning of Friday. The High Seas Alliance, a group of non-profits pushing for approval, believes they’ll have enough countries ratifying the treaty within a few weeks. “This conference has served as a beacon for nations to work toward ratification,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of High Seas Alliance. “We urge all remaining nations to ratify without delays.” The treaty could also help further a global goal set during the 2022 UN Biodiversity Convention to protect 30% of the oceans by 2030. A handful of countries have protected their territorial waters, but it’s far short of the end-of-decade target: Only 8.4% of ocean and coastal areas globally have some sort of protection. Beyond the sea conferenceWhile these are signs of commitments to progress, some observers are worried they won’t lead to enough tangible actions. “The world does not lack ideas, it lacks implementation, and implementation requires political will, community trust and sustained investment,” Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said in a speech in Nice. “These are not radical ideas, they are overdue.” Enric Sala, a marine scientist and an executive producer of the documentary movie Ocean with David Attenborough, said he’s leaving the conference with mixed emotions. “It’s a combination of hope for all these real announcements that represent a change in the water, and a lot of disappointment over the empty speeches,” Sala said in a telephone interview from Nice. “There are a few leading nations, but these countries are rare — most countries have not protected anything significant.” --With assistance from Todd Woody and Magdalena Del Valle | 
