Experts believe that Canada’s consideration for a moratorium on commercial fishing in the Beaufort Sea is a move that would match a decision announced last week by the U.S. government. It is told that the temporary U.S. ban imposed on Thursday by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke followed months of speculation about the possible opening of new fisheries north of Alaska, where warming waters and melting sea ice are expected to encourage northward migrations or population spikes of some commercially valuable species of fish, shellfish and marine mammals.
Locke accepted that recommendation on Thursday, insisting that despite strong prospects for snow crab, Arctic cod and saffron cod fisheries, too little is known about fish stocks to sanction commercial operations. He told that as Arctic sea ice recedes due to climate change, there is increasing interest in commercial fishing in Arctic waters.
Locke informed that they are in a position to plan for sustainable fishing that does not damage the overall health of this fragile ecosystem. This plan takes a precautionary approach to any development of commercial fishing in an area where there has been none in the past. Canadian officials said that the U.S. will continue to allow small-scale, subsistence fishing among its native populations — as any moratorium in this country would.
In Canada, Beaufort Sea fishing is regulated by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans in collaboration with six Inuit communities in the Western Arctic under terms of the 1984 Inuvialuit Final Agreement land claim. Scott Highleyman, director of PEW’s international Arctic program, told that the group supports the FJMC consideration of a moratorium in Canadian waters in the Beaufort as a way to respond to climate change, preserve future options for fisheries development by Inuvialuit communities when the time is right, and reinforce the rights of self-determination in the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.
