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Leaders urged to impose moratorium on industrial fishing in thearctic by efwegbe erergeer
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Leaders urged to impose moratorium on industrial fishing in thearctic |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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The leaders of the five Arctic coastal states including PrimeMinister Stephen Harper are being urged by more than 2,000scientists from around the world to impose a moratorium onindustrial fishing in the increasingly accessible waters of thecentral Arctic Ocean until experts can determine the size andsustainability of the resource. In an open letter signed by 551 Canadian scientists along withabout 1,500 others from 67 countries the researchers issued anappeal to the governments of Canada, the U.S., Russia, Norway andDenmark to develop an international fisheries accord that wouldavoid decimating potentially lucrative species such as Arctic codbefore enough is known about their populations. Scientists recognize the crucial need for an internationalagreement that will prohibit the start of commercial fishing untilresearch-based management measures can be put in place, saidHenry Huntington, Arctic science director of the U.S.-based PewEnvironment Group, which organized the global scientific appeal. There s no margin for error in a region where the melting seaice is rapidly changing the marine ecosystem. The area in question lies beyond the 370-kilometre, nearshore exclusive economic zone within which each Arctic coastalcountry has acknowledged fishing rights.
Even within the close-to-the-coast, Beaufort Sea exclusive economiczones of the U.S. and Canada, a lack of scientific knowledge aboutthe size of fish stocks has already prompted bans on commercialfisheries until more research is completed. But out toward the middle of the Arctic Ocean, where thick,multi-year sea ice seemed a permanent fixture on the water untilrecent years, even less is known about resident fish populations. Much of the vast, 2.8-million-square-kilometre area ofinternational waters at the centre of the Arctic Ocean dubbedthe Arctic doughnut hole by some conservation advocates could experience ice-free summers in the coming years or decades,according to many scientists.
And while relatively little research has been done in the region,experts believe significant volumes of commercially valuable fishsuch as Arctic cod or turbot would attract fishing fleets from manynations including distant countries such as China if ice-meltprojections prove accurate. In a statement released Sunday, Pew officials noted that iceretreats of up to 40 per cent in recent summers have madelarge-scale fishing in the central Arctic Ocean viable for thefirst time. But that doesn t mean the world should rush to start hauling fishfrom the region, said the open letter from the scientists, issuedahead of Monday s launch of the International Polar Year 2012conference in Montreal. The ability to fish is not the same as having the scientificinformation and management regimes needed for a well-managedfishery, the scientists state in the letter. The science community currently does not have sufficientbiological information to understand the presence, abundance,structure, movements, and health of fish stocks and the role theyplay in the broader ecosystem of the central Arctic Ocean, theresearchers coalition adds.
In the absence of this scientificdata and a robust management system, depletion of fishery resourcesand damage to other components of the ecosystem are likely toresult if fisheries commence. Among the highlighted signatories on the letter is University ofManitoba ice scientist David Barber, who has been raising alarmsfor years about the rotting of the older, thicker ice in theArctic Ocean and the uncertain implications for various animalspecies and the broader polar environment. The loss of multi-year Arctic sea ice is affecting the entiremarine ecosystem, as well as the ways in which people are likely todevelop Arctic resources, Barber said in a statement sent toPostmedia News. In the Central Arctic Ocean, it is essential thatan international agreement is put in place before commercialfishing starts to ensure that it is sustainable.
Another signatory, University of British Columbia fisheriesbiologist Daniel Pauly, said: Developing an internationalfisheries agreement is an important step toward protecting theecosystem of the High Arctic. Without such regulation, this regionwill be increasingly vulnerable to overfishing as climate changecauses the loss of permanent ice. Trevor Taylor, policy director for Oceans North Canada a Pewoffshoot in Canada said the proposed moratorium on commercialfisheries in the central Arctic Ocean would be highly unlikely to affect aboriginal fishing in Canada s North. In order to ensure sustainable Inuit fisheries continue,industrial fishing must be managed and regulated in the mosteffective manner possible, Taylor, a former Newfoundlandprovincial cabinet minister, told Postmedia News. One of thegreatest risks to continued nearshore harvesting of fish and marinemammals by Inuit would be unregulated industrial fishing, leadingto collapse of stocks important to Inuit and the marine mammalsthey depend on.
Oceans North Canada and allied Inuit groups were recentlysuccessful in pressing the Canadian government to approve aconservation zone for much of Lancaster Sound, a biologically-richarea of the Arctic Ocean at the north end of Baffin Island, nearthe entrance to the Northwest Passage. rboswell@postmedia.com. I am a professional writer from Dehumidifier, which contains a great deal of information about shelf wine rack , woven wood baskets, welcome to visit!
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