A New Approach to an Old Problem: Managing Fish Resources in the Beaufort Sea

Abstract

In the summer of 2007, the Arctic Ocean’s ice cover melted by more than one million square miles. As Arctic sea ice continuous its precipitous retreat, the receding waters lure advancing commercial activity into previously inaccessible northern climates. The Arctic’s potentially ice-free waters are spurring a geopolitical race to claim (or to preserve) the Arctic’s natural living resources because there is a potentially limited number of fish. At this moment, the Beaufort Sea presents the United States, Canada, and other nations a unique opportunity for proactive management of the Arctic Ocean’s fish resources. Currently, the ice retreat lasts only for a short one or two month period each summer. But as the effects of climate change become more pronounced, this previously inaccessible sea could become the next great fishing destination. The dispute between the US and Canada concerns the location of their maritime boundary in the Beaufort Sea. The issue first arose when the two states negotiated a continental shelf boundary and sought to define the limits of their 200 nautical mile zones. In the most simplistic terms, Canada applies the 141st meridian to define the western lateral limit of its zone with the United States. The US employs the equidistance method between the two nation’s coasts. The resulting 6,250 nautical mile overlap consists of potentially vast fishing resources. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provides the proper legal regime for resolving international disputes concerning ocean resources. Some commentators have suggested that UNCLOS is not suitable to manage the Arctic’s ecological conditions because only one article explicitly deals with ice-covered seas. Others note that UNCLOS lacks the legal teeth of hard law. Still others claim that successful resource use and conservation requires single state management within well-defined jurisdictions. Rather than delimiting each nation’s territory in an inherently unsatisfactory method and unlike previous authors that have addressed similar topics, I posit, that application of UNCLOS’s overarching principle of conservation could yield a satisfactory accord between the US and Canada concerning fish resources. But in order to achieve such a result, Canada and the US must undertake four tasks: (1) share research, (2) develop a common understanding of the issues, (3) pursue a course of indirect coercion, and (4) bring about voluntary participation. Drawing on the demonstrated potential for successful joint management of fishing resources exhibited by Norway and Russia in the disputed Svalbard Zone, this paper provides an original guideline for successful co-management of the Beaufort Sea.