Arctic sea ice coverage has been declining for decades, and 2011 set a record for the lowest amount of coverage ever recordeda record we’re currently threatening to break. Less ice and more open water means the region will soon be available for additional human activity.
Shipping companies and cruise lines are already utilizing new routes, taking advantage of the long-sought northwest passage from Europe and North America to Asia. And as soon as next week, Shell Oil could receive the green light to begin drilling up to five new exploratory oil-and-gas wells off the north slope of Alaska. As Big Oil prepares to exploit the emerging resources and access, the fishing industry has chosen to take a very different approachone the oil companies should heed.
In August 2009 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration formally approved a proposal by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to ban all fishing activity in the U.S. Arctic except subsistence fishing by Alaska Natives. Members of the councilthe majority of which is comprised of fishing industry representativesvoted unanimously to recommend the prohibition. In a remarkably forward-looking move, the body also opted to close the nearly 150,000-square-mile Arctic Management Area (see Figure 1) until adequate scientific fish stock assessments and other data could be collected that would ensure this virgin resource could be managed sustainably.
This move gained the support of environmental organizations such as Oceana, The Ocean Conservancy, and the Pew Environment Group, as well as Alaska’s biggest coalition of fishing industry intereststhe Marine Conservation Alliance, which represents more than two-thirds of the state’s groundfishermen and crabbers.
2005-2012 Center for American Progress Action Fund