Council Moves to Ban Commercial Fishing in Arctic
This past Thursday, a federal advisory group recommended prohibiting commercial fishing in nearly 200,000 square miles of U.S. waters in the Arctic Ocean, with support from both conservation groups and the fishing industry.
By a unanimous vote, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted a plan that would close the Arctic to all commercial fishing in Alaskan waters north of the Bering Strait and east to the Canadian border.
While no large-scale fishing operations currently exist in the area, extensive ice melts in recent summers raise the prospect of more vessels entering the area in future. Conservation groups say barring fishing in the region will lessen the stress on an environment they say already is rapidly changing because of global warming.
The plan was praised by numerous environmental groups and by industry. The plan was also supported by native communities, who will see their traditional fisheries protected.
“The decision signals a new day in the Arctic, where science comes first and where we think about the consequences of our actions before we take them,” said Janis Searles Jones, vice president of Ocean Conservancy.
Fishing interests also are concerned. “We just don’t know what the resource is up there and whether something could be sustained,” said Dave Benton of the Marine Conservation Alliance, a fishing industry group. “The right thing to do is to stand down, close the waters of the Arctic and let science catch up.”
The council’s recommendation sends a strong message to other Arctic nations about conservation of marine resources and response to climate change. The recommendation now goes to the U.S. Commerce Department for a final decision.
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