Transcript Climate Change and its Impact on Arctic Fisheries

Climate Change and its Impact on Arctic FisheriesSpecific Reference to North Pacific-Bering Sea
Dr Daud Hassan
Arctic environment- sensitive ecological systems, extreme
weather conditions, large areas covered by ice and vulnerable to
over exploitation of resources
Arctic Fisheries Management
Principles of International Environmental Law
dealing with resource management impacted
on Arctic fisheries management regime
Early development of international fisheries
management
• Prior to the 19th Century
• Sea- too vast for overuseendless waste sink
• Bi lateral fisheries
agreements (N, S, N, G,
GB)/conventions
•
North Sea Fisheries
Convention 1881 (B, D, F,
G and GB)
• Focused on enforcementperceived overfishing
close to coast
• Conservation measures?
• International Council for the
Exploration of the Sea (ICES)
1902- promote and encourage
research and investigations
relating to marine living
resources
• Important development in
ILMLR
• ICES Convention 1964formalises ICES
Cont’d
• A number of fisheries
conventions were adopted
after 2nd World War
• No formula for the size of
permissible catch or
overexploitation of marine
living
• Maximum sustained catch
(North West Atlantic Fisheries
1949)
• Maximum reasonable
utilization (US –Mexico relating
to the establishment of an
International Commission for
the Scientific Investigation of
Tuna 1949)
• International Technical
Conference on the
Conservation of the Living
Resources of the Sea 1955focused on fishery
conservation • did not prescribe appropriate
methodology rather stressed
on international cooperation for
the conservation of high seas
fisheries
Cont’d
•
•
•
•
•
Convention on Fishing and the
Conservation of the Living
Resources of the High Seas 1958
Not related to internal or territorial
waters fishing but provisions
relating to fisheries management
were significant
Imposed obligation upon States in
terms of harvesting fisheries (Arts
1 & 2)
Provided the basis for
fisheries management - not
scientific advice
Appropriate conservation
objectives not satisfactory-there
are measures but no guidance
• Decolonisation in 1960s and
the adoption of exclusive
economic zone by the
Organisation for African Unity
(OAU) in 1972
• Extended maritime jurisdiction
• Regional fisheries agreements
Development in 1970 and thereafter
•
•
•
•
•
Stockholm Declaration and a range of
the international instruments
Management regime for substantial
protection of natural environment
LOSC- significant development in
contemporary marine living resources
management
The adoption of EEZ in LOSC
framework has placed 90% of world
fisheries under national jurisdiction
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Principal provisions- Arts 61 and 62
(conservation and utilization of living
resources)
Arts 63(2) and 118 (Straddling Stocks
and high Seas marine living resources)
Changes fisheries exploitation and
ownership of fishing vessels patterns
Exploitation of resources in the EEZ in
a rational and sustainable manner
Maximum sustainable yield
No restrictions on coastal States to
deal with the fisheries in the territorial
Sea
A large degree of discretion left to the
coastal states
Duties of cooperation
Positive obligation?
Cont’d
• Emergence of precautionary principle – A new norm-of
marine living resources management- significant change
in the philosophy of fisheries management
• UNCED 1992 -principle 15 of Rio Declaration
•
Para 17.21 of Agenda 21
• Straddling Stocks Agreement-Article 6
• ICJ- Gabcikovo Nagymaros Project (1997)
•
Distinct alternative approach to fisheries
management
•
Interests of fishing communities
•
Markets-socio economic impacts
Regulation of living resources management in the
Arctic
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Traditional system of management
LOSC based approach- provisions
relating to high seas fisheries and
straddling stocks
General principle of IEL and LOSCmanage the Arctic Ocean
cooperatively and appropriately
A number of regional initiatives have
been undertaken
Arctic Environment al Protection
Strategy (AEPS) 1991
To protect Arctic ecosystem the
objectives of AEPS focus on various
environmental issues including
sustainable utilization of natural
resources and eliminate pollution
Specifically apply to fisheries
resources management?
• Flexible strategy• Legal status and the extent of
states’ obligation ?
• No definition of Arctic
environment and Arctic
ecosystem
• Not specific to fisheries
management
• Bilateral management
schemes -generally no real
effort for regional management
of Arctic fisheries
• Bilateral management
schemes through
intergovernmental
arrangements or through
regional management
organization
Importance of fisheries resources in the Arctic
• Arctic poses substantial stocks of marine living
resources that flourish in the sub-Arctic waters
(SK). They are among most productive in the
world. In particular Bering Sea which is part of
north pacific ocean- linked to the Arctic Ocean
by Bering Strait, produce large number of
fisheries. Fisheries resources in the Bering Sea
region include Capelin, squid, crabs, shrimp,
scallops, Pollock, cod, sablefish, halibut, perch,
pacific salmon, sole , atka, flatfish, and turbot.
Exploitation of Bering Sea Fish Stock
• Since 1915
• In 2001 the value for groundfish harvest in the
eastern Bering Sea was approx. US $426 million
Possible impacts of climate change on Bering
Sea fisheries
• Affects the rates of recruitment or growth, mortality and
spatial distribution of commercial fish stocks –factors
including water temperature, ocean currents or
competition for available food (affect the availability of
nutrients and disposition of larval and juvenile
organisms)
• Water exchange between the shelf and open sea region
• Moderate warming would improve recruitment to cod,
herring and Pollock stocks
Ability to cope with change
May have some positive response- but negative to those
species that are adapted to colder climates (some
fisheries may disappear and new ones may develop)king crab stocks in the eastern Bering Sea have declined
(debate as to whether overfishing or environmental
conditions)
• -Average harvest of any given species (including
commercial) will increase
• -migration - may change the population, distribution and
value of catch in the region
• - economic impact- unlikely significant unless heavily
dependent on fisheries ( indigenous people with
subsistence fishing interests) or considerable warming
Bering Sea living resources management
• Domestic regional and international management
regimes are significantly important in terms of biological
and economic sustainability of fisheries resources.
• Prior 1982 the Bering Sea was largely high sea
• USA and USSR claim- major management jurisdictionsUS and Russian EEZs
• High seas fisheries- efforts to bring fishery particularly
Pollock under international management -International
Convention between the USA, Canada and Japan for the
High Seas Fisheries of the North Pacific Ocean 1953unsuccessful attempt!
Cont’d
• 1988 Agreement between the Government of USA and the
Government of USSR on Mutual Fisheries Relations
• Implement general principles in relation to the management of
shared fishery resources (Bering sea and Chukchi Sea, Art III-VII)
• Cooperation of fishery scientific research and trade (Arts IX and X
respectively)
• Intergovernmental Consultative Committee was formed (Art XIV)
• Bering Sea advisory body –co management of Pollock stocks
• Industry initiatives to manage other fisheries
• US-USSR Declaration of EEZ in the Bering Sea and fishing in the
central high seas area of Bering Sea (known as the Doughnut Hole)
Cont’d
• 1994 Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the
Central Bering Sea (Doughnut Hole Convention)
•
Application- central Bering Sea beyond the USA and Russian
EEZ
•
Aim- conservation management and optimum utilization of
Pollock resources
•
Restore and maintain the Pollock resources
•
Scientific and technical committee
• Allowable harvest level for Pollock
• Individual national quota for each party
• Cooperative enforcement measures
• Flag state enforcement – mechanisms for a system of observation
and inspection
• Useful model for fisheries management
• An important initiative to exploit a single resource in a high sea area
Cont’d
• Institutions for resource management -the North Pacific Science
Organisation; the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission,
North Pacific Fisheries Management Council
• National level- Fishery Conservation and Management Act, Fishery
Management Plans
•
Current management approach- TAC is set on annual
basis
• Russian Far East- reciprocal fishing agreements between regional
and central administration
• US Coast Guard and Russian Border Guard have developed
cooperation on enforcement
• Setting and allocation of quotas are being challenged- controversial
innovative efforts
Cont’d
While some of the issues have been improved
the legal regime with respect to fisheries
management remain incomplete
•
-absence of linkage between national and
international conservation measures
•
- management response to transition phase
is insufficient
Way forward
•
•
•
•
•
Improvement of management
practices
Rational management /Relative
effectiveness/ Effective
management of fisheries
development and implementation
management principles
limit or at least adjustments of
harvesting commercial fisheries
(depending on the degree of
climate change)
Management based on precaution
Ecosystem based managementmulti faceted- involves a balancing
of social, economic,
environmental, political and other
interests
•
•
•
•
•
Genuine commitment-regional
cooperation (particularly eastern
and western Bering Sea)
Has it extended to fisheries
management?
Improved compliance
culture/Strengthened regional
research cooperation with respect
to fisheries
Continuing need for effective
cooperation for fisheries resources
management in the Bering Seacould only be effective if all states
in the area active in fishery
management initiatives
A new model for effective
cooperation for fisheries resources
management in the Bering Sea