Wayne Panton MP signed a non-binding Sargasso Sea pledge for Cayman in Bermuda on Monday.

The Hamilton II Declaration was signed at Government House in Hamilton, Bermuda, on 19 October 2026 by Uma Kumaran MP, the UK Minister for the Overseas Territories, the Caribbean and Global Technology, and Jaché Adams, Bermuda's Minister of Public Works and Environment. A joint statement from the two governments, issued the same day, said representatives of the Azores, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Monaco and the Turks and Caicos Islands also signed, together with more than 20 non-governmental organisations. The statement did not name the person who signed for the Cayman Islands. The Caymanian Journal (TCJ) has established that it was Panton, the Parliamentary Secretary whose responsibilities include Health, Environment and Sustainability, who was in Bermuda for the ceremony. No release about the signing had been published on the Cayman Islands Government website by Wednesday 21 October.

When TCJ telephoned the Governor's Office on 21 October to ask whether Panton had signed for Cayman, a member of staff said: "I think you need to ask his office." Asked which ministry that was, the staff member said: "I don't represent him. You need to research Google and find out where his office is and ask him if he went." Questions about the signing itself, the staff member said, should go to the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office press office.

Under section 55 of the Cayman Islands Constitution Order 2009, the Governor is responsible for external affairs, subject to matters delegated to the Premier or ministers. The Governor's Office is listed on gov.ky as a media contact. TCJ's editorial standards require that the body concerned be asked for comment before publication and that its answer, or the absence of one, be reported. TCJ emailed the Governor's Office the same day.

The Government of Bermuda described the declaration on 15 October as a "voluntary, non-legally binding mechanism" for signatories to show political support for a future proposal to protect the Sargasso Sea under a new United Nations ocean treaty. In plain terms, the signatories are asking the countries that have joined that treaty to agree legally binding protection for the sea when they meet for the first time in New York in January 2027. What the Government has agreed to do in support of that request, and on whose authority Panton signed, has not been stated.

What the Sargasso Sea is

The Sargasso Sea is an area of the North Atlantic around Bermuda with no coastline. It is bounded by ocean currents rather than land, and most of it lies in international waters that no government controls. It takes its name from Sargassum, the floating golden-brown seaweed that collects there. The Sargasso Sea Commission, the body set up under the original 2014 declaration, says on its website that the seaweed mats are a nursery for fish and a developmental habitat for at least three species of Atlantic sea turtle.

The Commission also addresses a question many Caymanians will ask. It says the seaweed that has washed onto Caribbean beaches since 2011 is "not suspected to be Sargassum drifting from the Sargasso Sea" but comes from a separate population further south. On the Commission's account, protecting the Sargasso Sea is not a remedy for seaweed on Cayman's shores.

What Cayman signed in 2017

This is Cayman's second Sargasso Sea pledge. The first Hamilton Declaration was signed in Bermuda on 11 March 2014 by the Azores, Bermuda, Monaco, the UK and the U.S. It was a political commitment, not a treaty. It created the Sargasso Sea Commission to keep the sea's health under review and to bring conservation proposals to the international bodies that regulate fishing, shipping and seabed mining there. Kurt Tibbetts, then Minister for Planning, Lands, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure, signed it for Cayman on 3 January 2017, making the Cayman Islands the ninth signatory government.

The Commission's website says each of the ten signatory governments has a focal point, a named official who champions proposals for the sea. On 21 October 2026 that page named an official for nine of the ten governments. The entry for the Cayman Islands was blank. The Cayman Islands Government has not said who holds the role.

Who was there, and who was not

Of the ten governments on the 2014 declaration, six were named as signing on Monday: the Azores, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Monaco and the UK. The Turks and Caicos Islands, which did not sign in 2014, joined them. Four of the original ten were not named: the British Virgin Islands, Canada, the Dominican Republic and the U.S.

The joint statement said: "We hope that others will do so at the Conference of the Parties." It added that the European Union had signalled its intent to sign at a second ceremony planned for the January meeting. The statement gave no reason for any government's absence.

Why January matters

The treaty behind the new declaration is the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, known as the BBNJ Agreement or the High Seas Treaty. It entered into force on 17 January 2026 and, for the first time, gives countries a legal route to create protected areas on the high seas. The first Conference of the Parties, the treaty's decision-making meeting, is due in New York in January 2027.

The UK ratified the treaty on 10 July 2026. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in its announcement that ratification "enables the UK to play a full role in implementing the Agreement". The announcement did not say whether the UK's ratification has been extended to the Cayman Islands or to any other Overseas Territory. That matters here because, without extension, a proposal for the Sargasso Sea would be carried at the treaty meeting by the UK, not by Cayman. TCJ has asked the Governor's Office to confirm the position.

Bermuda's case for signing

Adams, speaking at Government House on Monday, set out why Bermuda had led the initiative. "Signing the Hamilton II Declaration means we are accepting responsibility," he said, according to The Royal Gazette, Bermuda's daily newspaper. The joint statement said the declaration had been developed through detailed consultations with states and civil society.

The Cayman Islands Government has made no equivalent statement and has not said whether Cabinet approved Panton's signature, or when.

What happens next

The signatories say a second signing ceremony will be held at the January 2027 meeting in New York. Whether a Cayman representative will attend, and whether Cayman will co-sponsor any proposal, has not been stated.

TCJ emailed the Governor's Office on 21 October asking it to confirm that Panton signed and on whose authority, and whether the UK's ratification of the treaty extends to the Cayman Islands. It had not replied when this article was published; its non-response is recorded here as TCJ's standards require. Questions on what the Government has committed to, whether any cost falls on the Cayman Islands and why the Commission lists no Cayman focal point remain open.