Scientists call for international Arctic fisheries protection

Scientists are urging Arctic governments to develop an international fisheries accord to protect the unregulated waters of the Central Arctic Ocean. (PHOTO BY SARAH MCMAHON)

MONTREAL — More than 2,000 scientists from 67 countries have urged Arctic leaders to develop an international fisheries accord to protect the unregulated waters of the central Arctic Ocean, in an open letter released April 22 by the Pew Environment Group.

Permanent sea ice has opened up as much as 40 per cent of this region during recent summers, making industrial fishing viable for the first time, the Pew group said in a news release.

“Scientists recognize the crucial need for an international agreement that will prohibit the start of commercial fishing until research-based management measures can be put in place,” said Henry Huntington, Pew’s Arctic science director, said in the release. “There’s no margin for error in a region where the melting sea ice is rapidly changing the marine ecosystem.”

More than 60 per cent of the scientists who signed the letter, released as the International Polar Year 2012 science conference in Montreal gets underway, are from one of the five Arctic coastal countries — Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway, and Greenland/Denmark.

The scientists suggest Arctic countries work together to protect the central Arctic Ocean by:

• developing an international fisheries management accord;

• starting with a catch level of zero until sufficient research can assess the impacts of fisheries on the central Arctic ecosystem; and,

• setting up a management, monitoring, and enforcement system before commercial fishing begins.

Although industrial fishing has not yet occurred in the northernmost part of the Arctic, its newly opened waters are closer to Asian ports than Antarctica’s waters are, the scientists say.

Large bottom trawlers regularly catch krill and toothfish in the southern ocean, placing stress on populations of these fish. The lack of regulation in the Arctic region could make it an appealing target for similar activities, they say.

“Atlantic Canada has experienced the damage that unregulated fishing can cause, even when it is outside the 200-mile limit,” said Trevor Taylor, the policy director for Oceans North Canada and a former fisheries minister for Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Canada should take the lead in helping craft an international accord to prevent the start of industrial fishing. This will protect the environment and strengthen Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic.”