3-5 June, the ten parties to the Agreement on preventing unregulated fishing in the Central Arctic Ocean meet in Tromsø. Climate change and reduced ice cover are making the Arctic Ocean more accessible.
By Alf Håkon Hoel, professor, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway/ Institute of Marine Research and Maria Fossheim, Program Manager Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean, Institute of Marine Research
Climate change and reduced ice cover are making the Arctic Ocean more accessible. To prevent future unregulated fishing in the international area («high seas») of the central Arctic Ocean, an agreement was signed in 2018. Key measures in the agreement include a 16-year moratorium on fishing and the establishment of a scientific program.
By the middle of this century, the Arctic Ocean is likely to be virtually free of ice in the late summer. Human-induced climate change is the most important driver behind this change. Currently, there is little human activity in the central Arctic Ocean itself, but this is expected to increase as the ocean becomes ice-free. The world’s northernmost fisheries currently take place in the adjacent northern Barents Sea and the Russian north continental shelves.
Most of the Arctic Ocean belongs to the five coastal states: the United States (Alaska), Canada, Denmark (in respect of the Faroe Islands and Greenland), Norway, and Russia. Around the North Pole there is an international sea area of 2.8 million km2 – larger than the Mediterranean. This is the agreement area.
In such international sea areas, according to the law of the sea, all states have the right to allow their vessels to fish. An American initiative in 2008 initiated a process towards an agreement to limit possible future fishing in the international area. It was feared that vessels from distant water fishing nations could start unregulated fishing there when the ice withdraws.
Norway invited to a meeting among the five coastal states in 2010. In the following years several research meetings and discussions between the governments of the coastal states took place. The scientists concluded early on that prospects for commercial quantities of fish in the central Arctic Ocean are slim in the foreseeable future. In 2015, the coastal states declared that they would not allow their vessels to fish in the international area. They would also strengthen research to improve understanding of the ecosystems in the Arctic Ocean and invite potential distant-water fishing countries to join the discussion and encourage them to refrain from fishing.
The final agreement to prevent unregulated fishing in the international area in the central Arctic Ocean was signed in 2018 and entered into force in 2021. The parties to the agreement are the five coastal states and China, Japan, South Korea, Iceland and the EU. The agreement states that decisions are to be made by consensus and also address how the cooperation may be further developed in the future.
The purpose of the agreement is to prevent unregulated fishing in the international sea area in the central Arctic Ocean. An important point is that the parties recognize that the coastal states have special interests in the area. Another key point is that the regulations of the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) already apply in the European sector of the international area. In this sector, possible future fisheries are thus already regulated.
The agreement obliges the parties not to allow their vessels to fish in this area until after 2037. After that, the moratorium will continue in five-year intervals until the parties decide not to extend it.
The scientific cooperation that began in 2011 is continued in the agreement. This is done through a joint program of scientific research and monitoring in which a group of scientists assesses the state of the ecosystems and the prospects for commercial fish stocks to establish themselves in the agreement area. The agreement also emphasizes the importance of protecting ecosystems. Given that there are no prospects for commercial fishing activity in the international area in the foreseeable future, research and monitoring are central to the agenda. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which provides scientific advice on management measures to both NEAFC and to coastal states and the EU in the North Atlantic, is an important actor here.
The main substantive issue besides science is rules for exploratory fishing. Such rules are common in regional fisheries bodies, and the agreement requires the parties to agree to rules for regulating exploratory fishing within three years after the entry into force of the agreement. Given the fact that actual fishing is not imminent, discussions of such rules are on-going, addressing questions relating to inter alia decision-making and review.
Although the presence of commercial fish stocks is unlikely in the international area, further south several fish species are seen to be expanding northwards. In the 200-mile zones of the five coastal states, we can expect increased occurrences of fish further north than we have been used to, but probably still within these waters. This is something the coastal states have realized, and fisheries regulations have often been adjusted to take this into account. In Norway, for example, an area of over 400,000 km2 near Svalbard is thus closed to fishing. Similar measures have also been taken in the high North of USA and Canada. In a larger perspective, the perhaps most important aspect of the agreement is that it contributes to the development of a legal order of the oceans, based on the law of the sea and the best available scientific evidence. An important aspect is also that the scientific program contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the central Arctic Ocean resulting from the work of a number of organizations and initiatives, such as those related to ICES and the Arctic Council.