This paper will explore and critically analyse national strategies for oceans governance and protecting marine biodiversity from a transnational perspective. For example, during 2016 New Zealand launched a public consultation exercise regarding a new Marine Protected Areas Act,¹ and published statistical reports on the marine environment² and the marine economy³ and a biodiversity action plan.⁴ More recently, the previous New Zealand government advised that a major plank of its legislative program during 2017 would be the enactment of the new Marine Protected Areas Act. Looking at these New Zealand policy developments from a transnational perspective will firmly ground this paper in terms of considering how international environmental law obligations are implemented through both vertical comparison with the international legal order, and horizontal comparison between jurisdictions.