Who can protect the international High Seas?
The governance of areas beyond national jurisdiction is less rigid than in areas under national jurisdiction. However there are conventions and authorities that provide a framework for international waters. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) defines a set of rights of coastal States in the waters adjacent to the coast. Beyond these zones of national jurisdiction, all waters are considered to be High Seas, or international waters. Here human activities like fishing, shipping and scientific research are poorly regulated while the mineral resources of the seafloor beyond national jurisdiction belong to mankind as a whole with any revenue to be shared.
Based on UNCLOS, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) regulates the exploitation of mineral resources "for the benefit of mankind", and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) aims to control and prevent marine pollution from shipping. Biodiversity is addressed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and fisheries by the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC). Most important for the conservation of the marine environment in the North-East Atlantic is the OSPAR Convention, which guides the cooperation of its Contracting Parties and with other multilateral conventions and regulatory bodies.