Search

The impact of climate change on the circumpolar north has raised the profile of the Arctic Ocean to coastal states and presents serious foreign policy challenges. Chief among these is the pending delimitation dispute over the extended continental shelf between Canada, Denmark, the United States, and Russia. While delimitation disputes are not new to Arctic states, extended continental shelf claims are complicated by the existence of multiple claimants and a still developing international legal regime. To inform policymakers about what to expect from overlapping claims to disputed maritime areas, this paper draws comparative lessons for Arctic policymakers based on East Asia's experience responding to overlapping jurisdictional entitlements created by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). East Asian states have been grappling with the challenge presented by overlapping claims to resource-rich seabeds since the region ratified UNCLOS in the mid-late 1990s. In light of similar geographic conditions (a dispute over a semi-enclosed sea), alliance structures and the relative infancy of the claimant states with UNCLOS entitlements-Canada only ratified the treaty in 2003, and the United States has yet to do so-this paper sets out the case that important comparative lessons can be drawn from the East Asian experience with maritime delimitation disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analysed catch records of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), cod (Gadus morhua), and halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus and Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) from the 17th and 18th centuries from several locations of the Barents and White Seas areas. Historical records, found in Russian archives, allow analysis of long-term series of catches, and sometimes of the average weight of the fish. In total, we obtained data on catches of salmon for 51 years (for the period from 1615 to 1772) and of cod and halibut for 33 years (for the period from 1710 to 1793). These data are comparable with respect to fishing effort within the series. The data on Atlantic salmon are also comparable with statistical data for the period 1875–1915. We found notable fluctuations in catches and sometimes in the average weight of salmon. There was also fluctuation in catches of cod and halibut. Both observational comparison of catch series and temperature data and formal statistical analysis showed that catches tended to decrease during relatively colder periods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Future CO2-induced climate change scenarios from Global Circulation Models (GCMs) indicate increasing air temperatures, with the greatest warming in the Arctic and Subarctic. Changes to the wind fields and precipitation patterns are also suggested. These will lead to changes in the hydrographic properties of the ocean, as well as the vertical stratification and circulation patterns. Of particular note is the expected increase in ocean temperature. Based upon the observed responses of cod to temperature variability, the expected responses of cod stocks throughout the North Atlantic to the future temperature scenarios are reviewed and discussed here. Stocks in the Celtic and Irish Seas are expected to disappear under predicted temperature changes by the year 2100, while those in the southern North Sea and Georges Bank will decline. Cod will likely spread northwards along the coasts of Greenland and Labrador, occupy larger areas of the Barents Sea, and may even extend onto some of the continental shelves of the Arctic Ocean. In addition, spawning sites will be established further north than currently. It is likely that spring migrations will occur earlier, and fall returns will be later. There is the distinct possibility that, where seasonal sea ice disappears altogether, cod will cease their migration. Individual growth rates for many of the cod stocks will increase, leading to an overall increase in the total production of Atlantic cod in the North Atlantic. These responses of cod to future climate changes are highly uncertain, however, as they will also depend on the changes to climate and oceanographic variables besides temperature, such as plankton production, the prey and predator fields, and industrial fishing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]