Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction

The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Bill has received Royal Assent, and is now an Act.

The BBNJ Agreement—sometimes called the High Seas Treaty—is a landmark international agreement that will, for the first time, create a legal mechanism to establish protected zones waters in areas not subject to any nation's jurisdiction.

Until now, such protections have only been possible within a country’s own waters – but that is no longer the case.

The BBNJ Agreement adopted after more than a decade of international negotiations will:

• enable the creation of marine protected areas on the high seas

• require environmental impact assessments for activities that could have significant impact on marine ecosystems in areas beyond national jurisdiction

• ensure fair sharing of benefits from research into and utilisation of marine genetic resources, which have potential applications in medicines, cosmetics and biotechnology

• strengthen capacity-building for developing states, by promoting knowledge sharing, along with broader technology transfer

Follow this link to read more about the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Act.

Life Solved Live

Life Solved Live is a lecture series held by the University of Portsmouth presenting discoveries intended to change the way you see and understand things. The introductory lecture by Professor Alex Ford discussed the shocking truth behind our pollutants and our marine life in his talk ‘Sex changing sea life’. This was an absolute light bulb moment for the... Read More»

2022 CHASM Film

Fishing has been a part of Selsey Bill, West Sussex and the surrounding areas since the Bronze Age. Local fishermen tell of huge changes to the fishing grounds in recent years, about the small numbers of lobsters being caught locally, and large influxes of sediment arriving in their fishing grounds. Needing to understand these changes led to the development of... Read More»

Sea's The Day Film

Sea's the Day: The Fishermen of Selsey Bill. The film is one of the high points of the project. Millstream Productions did a wonderful job as they worked with the project team to sift through the oral history interviews to identify likely candidates to sit in front of a camera. This was followed by filmed interviews at locations on... Read More»