Grace E. Alberts2025-04-222025-04-222025-04-16https://hdl.handle.net/10222/85044Biodiversity loss in the High Seas is an issue that has long evaded international action due to the legal standing of the High Seas as a global resource common (Ardron et al., 2014; Freestone, 2018). This has proven to be detrimental to High Seas biodiversity hotspots such as the Sargasso Sea, which could not be legally protected despite its ecological significance (Freestone, 2018). The advent of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement has changed this, and for the first time, there exists an internationally recognized procedure for implementing legally enforceable conservation measures in the High Seas (Kim, 2024; Ricard, 2023). The BBNJ Agreement cannot, however, override or undermine any existing conservation policies of sectoral bodies (Langlet & Vardrot, 2023; Friedman, 2019; Scanlon, 2018). Such a provision is particularly influential in the Sargasso Sea, where human industrial activity is the leading cause of biodiversity loss (Laffoley et al., 2011). Using targeted policy coding and gap analysis, this thesis seeks to uncover the role that the BBNJ Agreement plays in stewarding the future conservation regime of the Sargasso Sea. It is revealed that sectoral bodies wield considerable power over the conservation future of the Sargasso Sea. The BBNJ Agreement, contrastingly, can exert little influence over the design of this regime, and strategies such as voluntary agreements and internal norm setting must be investigated to ensure that the Sargasso Sea is adequately protected.enBiodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) AgreementSargasso SeaArea-based Management Tools (ABMT)Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)conservation