Expansion of Commercial Fishing Banned in Arctic Fisheries
26.08.2009 - Water & Oceans, Other, Arctic
The Arctic fisheries will be protected from the expansion of commercial fishing in US waters north of the Bering Strait (Alaska), which, with about 60 percent of U.S. commercial landings, is called the "fish basket" of the United States.
Although there is currently no significant commercial fishing in the area, it is expected to become a target for commercial fishers chasing cod and snow crab as ice melts and fisheries shift north. The Obama administration has drafted a plan protecting the area until researchers can determine a sustainable amount of fishing in the fragile Arctic ecosystem.
Environmentalists hope this management plan is a signal of more ecological protection in the Arctic, whereas Alaska fishers hope it will pressure Russia and other Arctic nations to close their fisheries. Similarly, they hope the administration's approval will prevent a rush to new fishing grounds that could cause fish populations to crash.
With the Arctic playing a key role in the regulation of the global climate, the expansion of industry in this "poorly understood" region could have dire consequences for the planet as a whole, as Ocean's Conservancy's vice president Janis Searles Jones undelined.
