International Treaty Protecting World's Oceans To Take Effect

The research ship MV Anuanua Moana is pictured at a port in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, during an expedition to far-flung South Pacific waters in June 2025, spearheading efforts to dredge the tropical waters for industrial deep-sea mining. (Credit: AFP)

A multinational treaty to protect vast expanses of the world's oceans is finally set to become law in January 2026, with environmentalists hailing its enactment Friday as crucial to safeguarding the marine ecosystems.

The move by Morocco and Sierra Leone to join the UN treaty on the high seas clinched the threshold of at least 60 ratifications needed to enact it as international law.