Smithsonian At The Poles. Contributions to International Polar Year Science.

This past year focused on protecting the part of the ocean that is outside of the jurisdictional reach of any specific country and is, arguably, so enigmatic that experts in the field are still striving to understand it. When it comes to the high seas, there is a large part (64%) of the ocean that no one truly owns and that no one country can protect on its own. Which begs the question, “how do you protect something that doesn’t belong (only) to you?”