The Agreement To Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries In The Central Arctic Ocean’s Impact On The Management Of The Arctic Fisheries:A Critical Analysis

In recent years,the decline of the Arctic Ocean sea ice has provided the possibility for the utilization of marine biological resources.The high seas area of the Central Arctic Ocean does not rule out the possibility of large-scale commercial fishing in the future.On the one hand,due to the complexity and vulnerability of the Arctic ecosystems,the international community’s scientific research in this area is still insufficient,and thus it is difficult to provide scientific data supporting for sustainable fishing.On the other hand,this area is usually listed among the relatively few remaining areas of the world ocean not yet under the authority of any regional fisheries management organization.It is a blank area governed by international law.How to balance the utilization and the protection of the Arctic fishery resources is a common problem faced by all human being.Following almost ten years of negotiations,the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean(CAOF Agreement)was concluded on 3 October 2018 in Ilulissat,Greenland.Based on the text of the agreement,this article sorts out the functions and deficiencies of the CAOF Agreement in the perspective of international law,and makes recommendations for China to respond more proactively in the latter Arctic governance.The article is structured as follows: introduction,body and conclusion.The introduction provides a brief overview of the circumstances that led to the adoption of the CAOF Agreement and the need to fill the existing legal lacuna in the Arctic regional fisheries regime.The second part is the main body part which consists of four chapters.The first chapter introduces the international legal regime for high seas fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean,and then gives an overview of the negotiation history which led to the conclusion of the CAOF Agreement.It demonstrates the necessity of the CAOF Agreement from the substantive and legal levels,and analyzes the meaning of it.The second chapter is based on the text of the CAOF Agreement and discusses its spatial and substantive scope,combing with the focus issues in the negotiation process of the Arctic high seas fisheries that all parties pay close attention to.It analyzes the CAOF Agreement’s impact on the Central Arctic Ocean in the short term and points out that it would be a valuable contribution to effective governance of international waters in the Arctic and would provide a useful model for other regions as well.The third chapter compares the CAOF Agreement with other international laws and regulations,points out the flaws in the CAOF Agreement.It can be seen that the CAOF Agreement is neither complete nor perfect in the perspective of international law.In the fourth chapter,based on the previous discussion of the significances and deficiencies of the CAOF Agreement,it demonstrates the possible impact of the CAOF Agreement on China,along with the White Paper China’s Arctic Policy(White Paper)which released in 2018 and China’s practice of participating in Arctic governance in recent years.The article attempts to provide feasible solutions for China to better participate in Arctic fishery governance in the future.