Norway Ratifies Polar Sea Fisheries Agreement

Norway has ratified an agreement to prevent unregulated fisheres in international sections of the Polar Sea following parliament’s (Stortinget) approving of it. The agreement parties also committ to not permitting their own fishing vessels to fish in open, international waters in the Polar Sea until international fisheries management measures have been agreed upon.

The agreement has been negotiated by the five coastal states bordering on the Polar Sea; Norway, Canada, Denmark, Russia and the USA, as well as the five remote fisheries actors EU, Iceland, Japan, China and South Korea. Most of the Polar Sea lies within territorial water zone of the five coastal states, however, at the center of the Polar Sea there is an international area that is covered by ice most of the year.

The agreement was signed in Ilulissat, Greenland on 3 October 2018 and enters into force 30 days after all ten signatories have ratified it. So far, eight of them have.