Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing in the Circumpolar Arctic

Abstract

Climate change has increased both marine access to much of the circumpolar Arctic and the migration of fish stocks into northern waters. As fish stocks become depleted in southern jurisdictions, Arctic fish stocks could become more attractive for illegal, unre ported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. This situation has many parallels with the experiences of IUU fishing in the Southern Ocean around the Antarctic. However, unlike those in Antarctica, fish and marine mammal stocks in the circumpolar Arctic are subject to indigenous and local subsistence harvesting, which has priority over commercial harvesting. Arctic fish stocks are also characterized by lower growth rates, which increase their vulnerability to the impact of IUU fishing. In the Canadian Arctic, because of slow fish growth, limited seasonal fishing opportunities, and the high cost of shipping, extensive ecosystem and economic changes would be required to make commercial fisheries feasible. Fisheries have been very close to shore throughout the Canadian Arctic. Though attempts have been made to harvest Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) commercially, this species has been harvested primarily for subsistence and recreation. Arctic cisco (Coregonus autumnalis) or Pacific herring ( Clupea palasii) are potential commercial fishery targets in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, but these harvests would be subject to beluga whale feeding requirements. In this essay, I explore several northern fisheries to examine various IUU fishing scenarios for the Arctic: com mercial fishing in the Canadian and U.S. Beaufort Sea, the offshore halibut fishery adjacent to the Nunavut Territory of Canada, and the Irminger Sea redfish fishery in the Rey kjanes Ridge of the North Atlantic. I then consider current regulatory regimes for IUU fisheries in Antarctica and Europe, which provide potential models for Arctic fisheries.