By Bonnie Tsui

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Read more: The Ocean Still Holds Mysteries. That’s Why We Must Save It

The effort to establish high seas protections will outlast any single administration, and global public support will be critical to these efforts. Speer is the first to acknowledge that many of the specifics of managing fishing, shipping, and other industrial activities around these areas still need to be hammered out; this agreement is meant to be the foundation on which to do so.

Once it becomes international law, the treaty has the power to protect much of the ocean: to establish the high seas marine parks, share profits from commercial products derived from international waters, and mandate programs to level out the playing field for marine research and technology in developing countries. It also lays out stronger management practices governing human activities outside protected areas. It’s an important milestone—and, in this day and age, a moral imperative—but it’s not where the work ends. In many ways it’s where it begins.