Closing Off the Arctic

America may close off the Arctic to any new industrial fishing. This would be a good decision

In February, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which has jurisdiction over the 900,000 square-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off of Alaska, proposed that the Arctic be closed off to new industrial fishing.

The council is concerned that any new activity would significantly damage the region's already battered and rapidly warming ecosystem, including endangered polar bears and the thousands of subsistence-based people who call the Arctic home.

Now, the National Marine Fisheries Service is asking for public comments until July 27, after which it will decide on the proposal.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign an NRDC letter urging the Obama administration to prohibit industrial fishing in the Arctic Ocean

RELATED POSTS

• A Sisyphean Climate Challenge for the G8 (July 9, 2009)
• Gone in 75 Years: Polar Bears (June 29, 2009)
• Congress Tackles Climate Change (June 24, 2009)
• Selling the Arctic's Future to the Oil Industry (March 6, 2009)
  

image: Ansgar Walk