Accord would regulate Arctic fishing

By Kati Capozzi

Last summer, 40 percent of the ice in the central Arctic Ocean, commonly referred to as the ‘doughnut hole,’ melted. Prior to this last decade, scientists estimated that the doughnut hole – the region beyond the 200-mile exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of the five coastal nations – would be icebound for around 100,000 years. That is why, for the first time, governments of the five countries with coastline on the Arctic Ocean have come to an agreement that regulating commercial fishing near the North Pole is merited.

Diplomats and fisheries representatives from Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States will be meeting to discuss how an accord would protect the open water until further studies can be conducted on the Arctic Ocean’s current fish stocks.

The agreement’s ultimate objective is not to conserve this new fish habitat, but to manage for commercial development any stocks of fish that currently inhabit the ocean and have previously lived under the ice, such as Arctic cod and herring, or fish that may migrate into the new open water zone.

Diplomats and conservation advocates mutually agree that until the new ice-free area is fully studied and scientists have assessed its marine populations, the region should be protected from fishing fleets. The area of the doughnut hole that is melting the quickest is in the eastern Arctic, above Alaska and the Russian region of Chukotka, outside the EEZ, and well within the range of industrial fishing fleets in Asia.

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