Best wishes to everyone for 2026 and all the best to all teachers and students for the second school semester! We look forward to an interesting, insightful, sustainable New Year with many opportunities to learn more about the ocean!
As the new year starts, 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) will enter into force on 17 January. As you may have read from our previous Map of the Week last October, the BBNJ Agreement - also known as the High Seas Treaty - was adopted on 19 June 2023. To officially enter into force, 60 ratifications were needed, and on 19 September 2025 this milestone was reached. A period of 120 days bridges the 60th ratification to the official entry into force. On 17 January 2026, the High Seas Treaty will thus become the first legally binding agreement to protect biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction!
The BBNJ Agreement’s overall objective is the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. It addresses four main issues:
- Marine genetic resources, including the fair and equitable sharing of benefits;
- Measures such as area-based management tools, including marine protected areas;
- Environmental impact assessments; and
- Capacity-building and the transfer of marine technology.
The Agreement also addresses a number of “cross-cutting issues”, establishes a funding mechanism and sets up institutional arrangements including a Conference of the Parties that serves as the governing body of the Agreement and various subsidiary bodies, a Clearing-House Mechanism as the main platform for exchange of information under the Agreement and a secretariat. [1,2] Dive into the BBNJ factsheets to learn more!
Speaking of marine biodiversity, did you know there is a predefined map in the Atlas related to biodiversity? Thematic predefined maps combine several selected map layers that relate to a common topic. The predefined map on biodiversity comprises three map layers.
Marine Natura 2000 sites - This map layer shows the network of marine Natura 2000 sites across Europe. Natura 2000 is based on the 1979 Birds Directive and the 1992 Habitats Directive which have designated Special Protection Areas (SPA’s) and areas of Special Conservation Interest (or Sites of Community Importance; SCI’s) to ensure the long-term survival of Europe's most valuable and threatened species and habitats.
Marine Protected Area (MPA) - This map layer shows the ratio (%) of Marine Protected Area (MPA) and the national marine waters area for each European Union Member State. MPAs have been set up across the ocean to protect vulnerable species and ecosystems, to conserve biodiversity and minimise extinction risk, to re-establish ecosystem integrity, to segregate uses to avoid user conflicts, and to enhance the productivity of fish and marine invertebrate populations. The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 sets the target of protecting 30% of EU land and sea by 2030. One third of this (10%), including areas of very high biodiversity and climate value, should be under strict protection.
Coralligenous habitats - This map layer shows modelled spatial distributions of coralligenous outcrops and mäerl beds (sedimentary bottoms covered by free-living calcareous algae that grow in dim light [3]) across the Mediterranean Sea. These bioconstructions are typical Mediterranean underwater seascapes, comprising coralline algal frameworks. They are the result of the building activities of algal and animal constructors, counterbalanced by physical, as well as biological, eroding processes.
Make sure to click on the different elements of the map and zoom into specific areas to get additional information. Would you like to create your own thematic map? Select different map layers from the catalogue (tick several boxes in the list) and see what you can learn by overlapping them! You can also create your own map layer and save the resulting map in your working space in the Atlas. Find out how you can do this by reading our articles on the My Locations and My Notes tools.
Interested in upcoming events on the ocean? Below are two events you may be interested in!
| Date | Venue | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 17-25 January 2026 | Düsseldorf (Germany) | If you visit the Boot Düsseldorf yacht and watersports show, make sure to visit the "Love Your Ocean" initiative in hall 11 to learn about marine and water protection. Don’t miss Stand 11E04 dedicated to Watersports and Citizen Science: Participative Ocean Monitoring! |
| 2-6 March 2026 | Brussels (Belgium) | The European Ocean Days is a week-long event with a series of dynamic and interconnected sessions focused on key ocean-related themes, all designed to encourage participants to engage across topics and contribute to a shared vision for the prosperity, competitiveness, security and sustainability of our ocean. |
The data in the map is provided by EMODnet and Eurostat.
[1] https://www.un.org/bbnjagreement/en
[2] https://www.un.org/Depts/los/reference_files/BBNJ/bbnjagreementoverviewfactsheet.pdf