OSPAR and the Sargasso Sea Commission MoU

In August 2024 the Executive Secretaries of the OSPAR Commission and the Sargasso Sea Commission (SSC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for strengthened collaboration.

OSPAR's convention area and the Sargasso Sea Commission's area of collaboration are adjacent to one another in the North Atlantic, and both organisations are led by a conservation mandate. The MOU provides a framework for collaboration between the two organisations, including sharing experiences and lessons learned towards the development of area based management tools (ABMTs). OSPAR has been able to create the first network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in high seas areas, and the Sargasso Sea Commission's work is being recognised as a pilot case for the implementation of the BBNJ Agreement.[1]

The MOU continues the collaborative relationship between the two organisations, begun in 2012 with a Collaboration Arrangement. In 2022 the Sargasso Sea Commission contributed to OSPAR's stakeholder process to extend the mandate of the North Atlantic Current and Evlanov Sea basin Marine Protected Area (NACES MPA) to include the seafloor. Sargasso Sea Commissioners responded to the nomination proforma outlining the importance of the NACES MPA for the foraging activities of the Bermuda Cahow – the rarest seabird on the planet and a critically endangered 'lazarus species' endemic to Bermuda, the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of which is surrounded by the SSC high seas “area of collaboration” that was agreed by the 2014 Hamilton Declaration on Collaboration for the Conservation of the Sargasso Sea.

Cahows are not the only migratory species linking the two areas. Humpback whales move through both regions, calving in warmer waters in the Caribbean and foraging in northern latitudes as far as the Labrador and Barents Sea. Highly migratory fish species also move through both areas, including tuna, billfish, and large iconic species like Porbeagle and basking sharks. The Sargasso Sea is the only known spawning area for the European anguillid eel, a critically endangered species targeted for consumption by humans. These catadromous fish transition from marine breeding grounds to freshwater foraging grounds in countries throughout Europe, including the Mediterranean and the rivers of Baltic states.

For effective conservation of these highly migratory species, consideration must be paid to their entire range. Furthermore, the BBNJ Agreement calls for ecologically representative and well-connected networks of marine protected areas to be established in the high seas – and to do this, scientists and politicians must 'zoom out' and consider the entire interconnected ocean ecosystem.

Collaboration between the Secretariats of the OSPAR Commission and the Sargasso Sea Commission is the first step in the conservation of the remote high seas areas found in the OSPAR Convention Area and the Sargasso Sea Commission Area of Collaboration, home to ecologically and economically important species whose vast movements across ocean basins are difficult for us to comprehend.

^{[1] The 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 (BBNJ Agreement) was adopted on 19 June 2023: https://www.un.org/bbnjagreement/en.}