A pre-emptive fishing ban in Arctic waters by the United States may be the beginning of international bans in the area. A United States federal fishery panel, North Pacific Fishery Management Council, voted to prevent commercial fishing in northern areas of the Arctic sea. The ban will protect over 150,000 square nautical miles of the sea.
A ban in the area, which is north of the Bering Strait, is the first of its kind because it is due to climate change, not over fishing. Due to global warming, this area of the Arctic sea is now more accessible than ever before. Jim Ayers, vice president of Oceana stated: “Global climate change is making everyone think differently up here and making them understand that precautionary approaches are best.”
Scientists wish to study the area to determine global warming impacts on species that call the very northern Arctic sea home, which will help to determine what future actions should be taken. The ban does not impact current fishing in the Arctic sea, nor does it impact indigenous peoples who live off the sea in those areas.
