Technologies as Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain could help monitor the high seas aiming the preservation of the biological diversity of the world’s oceans, according to Reuters. Diplomats began negotiations, on September, on a legally binding treaty to protect oceans.

Namely, the meeting that was conducted at the United Nations in New York, aspires to have reached to an agreement by 2020.

The proposed treaty focuses on the 'high seas' – an area beyond the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone that extends from each country’s coastline into the ocean, as established by the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Concerning high seas, there are no officially recognised rules stating who and where can fish. That's why, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing estimated to cost $23.5 billion a year.

In addition, high seas should be protected since they make up the nearly two-thirds of the world’s ocean in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Dominic Waughray, head of the World Economic Forum’s Center for Global Public Goods, addressed that technologies as blockchain and artificial intelligence could help enforce the new treaty by tracking fishing on the high seas and identifying illegal behavior.

As Reuters stated, WWF's Conservation Group in the Pacific, makes fishermen tag fish with a scannable code that is uploaded to a blockchain ledger, so businesses and customers can confirm the source of any given tuna for sale at a retailer.

This will result to customers be aware of the ill-gotten catch concerning fish.

Moreover, Dominic Waughray noted that "We know we need it for a healthy ocean, but because nobody owns it … we have a real problem."

Since there is no official regulation on fishing, groups of countries have negotiated specific, unofficial regulations for sections of international waters, like rules governing tuna fishing in the Pacific or fish stocks in the Atlantic between Greenland and Europe.

However, experts support that the existing regulations aren't enough to manage ecosystems in international waters.

Liz Karan, senior manager for the high seas at the Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-profit organisation stated that without a global deal there isn't much to accomplish in protecting oceans.

She, then, highlighted that "nearly 10 years after north Atlantic island Bermuda spearheaded an effort to encourage collective management of the Sargasso Sea and protect its eel-rich seagrass, there are no binding measures in place."

Also, small Pacific island nations, such as Kiribati, Nauru, and the Solomon Islands, experience the most negative affects of the existing system because there are gaps for large-scale international fishing vessels to come in.

Source:safety4sea