Prime Minister Mark Carney used the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday to ratify the landmark High Seas Treaty and commit $82 million over five years to a new international ocean-observing alliance, positioning Canada as a leader in marine conservation even as prominent scientists sound the alarm over the dismantling of critical research capacity at home.
The dual announcements, made at the launch of the OceanEye International Alliance in New York, underscore a growing tension in Ottawa’s ocean agenda. While the government builds diplomatic momentum abroad — co-chairing the alliance with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and preparing to host the 2027 Our Ocean Conference in Halifax — federal scientists say the domestic infrastructure that underpins that leadership is being quietly eroded.
A treaty for the ‘blue half’ of the planet
The High Seas Treaty, which entered into force as international law in January, establishes the first legal mechanism to create marine protected areas in waters beyond national jurisdiction. Those waters cover nearly half the surface of the Earth. Until now, just 1.5 per cent of the high seas has enjoyed any form of protection.
Canada signed the agreement in March 2024. Wednesday’s ratification grants Ottawa a seat at the table when parties convene for the first time in January 2026. The treaty also mandates environmental impact assessments for high-seas activities and sets out rules for sharing the benefits of marine genetic resources discovered in international waters.
“Canada is an ocean nation,” Carney told delegates. “We have the world’s longest coastline as a consequence of that. That’s our inheritance, and we recognise the obligations, the responsibilities, that come with that to help lead efforts to understand those oceans, and of course, to protect them.”
The federal nature strategy, unveiled by Carney in March, earmarked $24.4 million over five years plus $1.8 million in ongoing funding to implement the treaty’s commitments.
$82 million for Arctic moorings, gliders and data
The OceanEye pledge targets the observing infrastructure that feeds global climate models and daily weather forecasts. The money will fund year-round moorings in the Arctic Ocean — a region warming four times faster than the planetary average — alongside autonomous underwater gliders operating beneath the ice. Expanded monitoring of the Labrador Sea and Davis Strait is also included, as is more than doubling Canada’s contribution to the global Argo network of profiling floats.
A portion of the funding will modernise the National Oceanographic Data Centre, the repository for the country’s marine observations.
The alliance itself, backed by the UN’s Global Ocean Observing System, relies on roughly 8,000 instruments worldwide that generate some 120,000 observations every day. Yet the network faces what von der Leyen described as a “critical funding shortfall,” with ageing sensors and persistent coverage gaps. Wednesday’s event secured more than $339 million in cash, in-kind support and assets such as research vessels and drones. The EU committed €92 million. Thirty-one members have now joined, including France, Germany, Norway, the UK, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and a cohort of small island and coastal states from Palau to Mauritius.
Scientists say domestic cuts undermine international credibility
The fanfare in New York contrasts sharply with a commentary published Sunday by Frédéric Cyr and Brad deYoung, two of Canada’s most respected oceanographers. Dr Cyr, a former Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientist now at Memorial University’s Marine Institute, and Dr deYoung, a professor emeritus at Memorial, warn that Ottawa is “dismantling the monitoring and research that underpin” its international partnerships.
They point to projected spending reductions of up to $194 million at Fisheries and Oceans Canada by 2028-29 and the loss of approximately 551 full-time positions. The Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program, which has tracked changing ocean conditions for more than two decades, has been scaled back. Support for the international programme monitoring the North Atlantic currents that regulate global climate has been withdrawn.
“As Canadian scientists, working internationally, we are watching the instruments go dark,” they wrote.
Dr Cyr said Wednesday he was encouraged by the new investments but remained concerned. Chief among his worries is whether the funding will sustain Canada’s role in observing the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation — the system of currents scientists fear could be approaching a tipping point.
A diplomatic push anchored in Halifax
The OceanEye launch also signals a deepening of the Canada-EU relationship ahead of a bilateral summit in Canada on 29-30 October. Carney, who agreed in June to co-chair the alliance with von der Leyen, acknowledged his wife, Diana Fox Carney, recently appointed as Canada’s Ocean Envoy and Chair.
“We intend to be at every table where the future of the ocean is decided and to continue to raise our ambitions,” the Prime Minister said.
Canada will host the Our Ocean Conference in Halifax on 10-11 May 2027, a gathering that will bring heads of state, ministers and civil society together to negotiate the next wave of marine commitments.
Why it Matters
Canada’s ratification of the High Seas Treaty and its financial weight behind OceanEye are significant diplomatic achievements that fill a leadership vacuum on the high seas. But credibility in international forums rests on the integrity of a nation’s domestic science. If the instruments go dark in the Labrador Sea and the Arctic while Ottawa pledges millions abroad, the data gaps will weaken the very global models and forecasts that OceanEye exists to support. Leadership on the high seas cannot be sustained by hollowing out the coast guard, the research fleets and the monitoring programmes that make Canada an ocean nation in the first place.
