On November 30, 2017, the United States concluded negotiations on an agreement to limit fishing in the Arctic, titled the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean.Footnote 1 Delegations from the European Union and nine countries—Canada, China, Denmark with regard to Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Russia, South Korea, and the United States—participated in the negotiations, which began in December of 2015.Footnote 2 According to a statement made by the U.S. State Department:
The Agreement will prevent unregulated commercial fishing in the high seas portion of the central Arctic Ocean, an area that is roughly 2.8 million square kilometers in size, roughly the size of the Mediterranean Sea. Commercial fishing has never been known to occur in this area, nor is it likely to occur in the near future. However, given the changing conditions of the Arctic Ocean, the governments in question developed this Agreement in accordance with the precautionary approach to fisheries management.Footnote 3
The agreement also provides for the establishment and operation of a “Joint Program of Scientific Research and Monitoring with the aim of improving the understanding of the ecosystem(s) of this area and, in particular, of determining whether fish stocks might exist in this area that could be harvested on a sustainable basis.”Footnote 4 The text of the agreement has not yet been made public.
Several non-U.S. parties to the agreement have emphasized the importance of this agreement in light of climate change. In discussing the value of the collaborative research initiative in particular, the Norwegian government stated that “such research will be important in monitoring the effects of climate change on the ecosystems of the Arctic high seas.”Footnote 5 Norway had previously noted the importance of limiting unregulated fishing in response to climate change's alteration of marine ecosystems in the Arctic Ocean.Footnote 6 The European Union also cited climate change as being critical to the importance of the agreement, stating in its press release that:
The Arctic region is warming at almost twice the global average rate, causing a change in the size and distribution of fish stocks. As a result, the Arctic high seas potentially become more attractive for commercial fisheries in the medium to long term. However, until present, most of the Arctic high seas were not covered by any international conservation and management regime. The agreement, reached in Washington DC at the fifth and final round of negotiations, will be a first step towards the creation of regional fisheries management organisations for the Central Arctic Ocean, to ensure that any future fishing is carried out sustainably.Footnote 7
The Canadian government described the agreement as a “strong proactive and precautionary approach to potential fishing activities in the central Arctic Ocean as climate change continues to have a major impact in the area.”Footnote 8 The Trump administration has not made the same explicit connection to climate change, although the State Department press release notes the “changing conditions of the Arctic Ocean.”Footnote 9
In July of 2015, the five Arctic coastal countries—Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States—reached a similar substantive understanding regarding the prevention of unregulated fishing of the Arctic.Footnote 10 The State Department at the time noted that the concluded declaration was consistent with past U.S. action to limit commercial fishing in the Arctic and with the intent expressed by Congress in a 2008 joint resolution:
The declaration builds on U.S. action in 2009 to prohibit commercial fishing in its Exclusive Economic Zone north of the Bering Strait until better scientific information to support sound fisheries management is available. The United States initiated this five-state process consistent with congressional direction under Public Law 110–243, which calls for the United States to take steps with other Arctic nations to negotiate an agreement for managing fish stocks in the Arctic Ocean, as well as the Implementation Plan for the 2013 National Strategy for the Arctic Region, which commits the United States to prevent unregulated high seas fisheries in the Arctic.Footnote 11
Negotiations for the expanded 2017 agreement were expressly grounded in the 2015 declaration but included not only the EU but also China, Iceland, Japan, and South Korea—nations which do not directly border the Arctic but do possess large fishing fleets.Footnote 12
As of the March 2017 round of negotiations, the 2017 agreement was drafted to be legally binding as a matter of international law,Footnote 13 and the Canadian government expressly referred to the agreement as legally binding in its November 2017 press release.Footnote 14 It remains to be seen what constitutional process the United States will use in pursuing ratification. The agreement is to enter into force once it has been signed and ratified by all ten parties.Footnote 15
