The North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s proposal to close the Arctic to commercial fishing for now has been praised and support by arctic community leaders, fishing industry representatives and conservation groups. NPFMC informed that the closure is necessary as the council know nothing about Arctic fishes. Council staffer Bill Wilson, who wrote the draft fisheries management plan that’s now out for public commented that the MPFMC is one of eight regional councils overseeing the nation’s fisheries management. It manages the groundfish of the 900,000 square miles of federal waters off Alaska.
Chris Krenz, Arctic project manager for the environmental watchdog Oceana, told that this is a complete change from the way fisheries management has taken place. Tom Okleasik, Northwest Arctic Borough planning director, said that the Arctic communities have a historical and cultural dependence on marine resources. Wilson opined as nobody fishes up there yet, and partly because the plan includes a process for opening up the Arctic.
The Marine Conservation Alliance made it clear that the closure is the only responsible act. It’s a nonprofit that represents the trawlers, cod long-liners, crab boats and processors that produce 70 percent of Alaska’s seafood. Scientists know a bit about the nearshore ecosystems, which are driven by plankton blooms and spring ice melt. They don’t know how a faster melt will affect fish, seals, polar bears, birds and other creatures up the food chain.
