Fisheries issue in the Central Arctic Ocean and its future governance

Abstract

The Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) is a global commons and fishes in the CAO are common property resources. If humanity does not manage this region well, it will lead to a “tragedy of the commons.” However, the two existing means of commons’ governance, privatisation or government control, are not appropriate for the CAO. According to my research, CAO fisheries management will most likely come out of a process of self-organisation. The openness of the CAO, the imbalance of powers, interests and responsibilities among the states that are involved; are likely to lead to a process of self-organised governance of the CAO fisheries. There are four stages in the process: competition, synergy, establishment of governing principles and mechanisms, and expanding and evolving influence. The likely outcome of CAO fisheries governance will be the result of gamesmanship among the parties as no one actor is in a dominant position.

Keywords:

• Central Arctic Ocean
• global commons
• governance
• self-organisation

Acknowledgments

I thank Dr Henry P. Huntington for giving good advice and help to revise the paper; Peter Harrison and Scott Highleyman for further ideas and encouragement; and Professor Xia Liping and Professor Anne-Marie Brady for their encouragement. I also thank anonymous reviewers for many good questions and the editor of this issue of The Polar Journal Professor Sanjay Chaturvedi. The work is one of the research results of the project (grant number: IC201709) “A Survey on the Attitude of the Indigenous People in Alaska to Economic Development Activities in the Arctic Region and the Path of Cooperation between China and the United States” funded by the China Arctic and Antarctic Office, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) of China; and of the project (grant number: 17PJC104) “The Resource Development in the Arctic Indigenous area and China’ Participation” supported by Shanghai Pujiang Program, Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security.

Notes

¹ Hill, “Arctic Nations Meet as Melting Sea Ice Opens New Fishing Frontiers.”

² Weber, “Ottawa Restricts Possible Arctic Fisheries”.

³ Third Meeting of Scientific Experts on Fish Stocks in the Central Arctic Ocean, “Final Report,” 5.

⁴ The meeting followed previous talks that took place December 1–3, 2015 and April 19–21, 2016 in Washington, D.C.

⁵ “Chairman's Statement of Meeting on High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean.”

⁶ UN Statistic Division, “Global Commons.”

⁷ “UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 87 (1).”

⁸ Ostrom, “Governing the Commons,” 1.

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹ Conley and Melino, “An Arctic Redesign,” 2.

¹² Kelleher, “Discards in the World’s Marine Fisheries,” Abstract.

¹³ Zhang, “Self-Organized Governance on the Global Commons,” Abstract.

¹⁴ Ibid., 97.

¹⁵ Cao and Liu, “Research on the Evolution of Maritime Safety Based on the Theory of Self-Organization.”

¹⁶ Tian, “A Study of the Rural Community Development Issue from the Perspective of Self-organization,” 9.

¹⁷ Ibid, 10.

¹⁸ Zhang, “Self-Organized Governance on the Global Commons,” 97.

¹⁹ Rosenau and Czempiel, “ Governance without Government,” 5 and 9.

²⁰ Zhang, “Self-Organized Governance on the Global Commons,” Abstract.

²¹ “Arctic Fisheries,” https://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/sustainablefisheries/arctic/

²² The PEW Charitable Trusts, “Timeline: Toward a Fisheries Agreement for the International Waters of the Central Arctic Ocean.”

²³ Weber, “Ottawa Restricts Possible Arctic Fisheries.”

²⁴ Pan and Huntington, “A Precautionary Approach to Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean: Policy, Science, and China.”

²⁵ Personal communication (email) with Henry P. Huntington (Ph.D. Senior Officer, International Arctic, The Pew Charitable Trusts), October 22, 2016.

²⁶ Pan and Huntington, “A Precautionary Approach to Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean: Policy, Science, and China.”

²⁷ Zhang, “Self-Organized Governance on the Global Commons,” 112–129.

²⁸ “Chairman's Statement of Meeting on High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean.”

²⁹ Ibid.

³⁰ Ibid.

³¹ Susan Strange, States and Markets, 12.