In a historic closing to the third United Nations Ocean Conference, the long-awaited High Seas Treaty has surged closer to becoming international law. With 19 new ratifications secured this week in Nice, the total number of ratifying countries now stands at 50—just 10 short of the 60 needed for the Treaty to enter into force.

he 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference, issuing a collective call for bold, science-backed action to safeguard the planet’s most vital resource — the ocean. The summit, co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, comes at a make-or-break moment for marine ecosystems and coastal nations, especially those across Southeast Asia, where millions depend on the sea for food, livelihood, and climate resilience.

The treaty, adopted in June 2023, requires 60 ratifications to take effect. So far, only 29 countries have done so. The Philippines, while among the 116 signatories, has yet to finalize its ratification.

The muted 2025 coral spawning bears similarity to 2017, when a subdued reproductive season followed the 2016 global bleaching crisis. “One coral genus in particular,

Despite warnings of overfishing for decades, the Southeast Asia region has a 3.6 times higher ratio of underfished marine stocks as compared with the global estimate, primarily owing to the prevalence of artisanal or small-scale fisheries and nonselective fisheries, which are supported by high biodiversity.

In a historic step toward marine biodiversity restoration, Thailand has launched its first-ever shark rewilding initiative aimed at reviving populations of the endangered Indo-Pacific leopard shark.

The 1000 Ocean Startups Asia Pacific : new regional coalition Aims to scale ocean impact startups across Asia-Pacific.

Triggered by record-breaking ocean temperatures, this mass bleaching, which began in January 2023, has affected coral ecosystems in at least 83 countries and territories, from the iconic Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the Persian Gulf, the Caribbean, the Red Sea, and beyond.