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Polar Biology 
July 2011, Volume 34, Issue 7, pp 955–973 | Cite as

Arctic fisheries catches in Russia, USA, and Canada: baselines for neglected ecosystems



The Amerasian Arctic, covering northern Siberia (Russia), Arctic Alaska (USA), and the Canadian Arctic, extends over seven coastal Large Marine Ecosystems and makes up the seasonally ice-free part of FAO Statistical Area 18 (Arctic Sea). Historically, the harsh climate has limited marine fisheries (here excluding marine mammal hunting) to small-scale operations conducted mainly in estuaries and river deltas. Most of the catches have traditionally not been reported to FAO, with the result that total catch estimated here from 1950 to 2006 is 75 times higher than the sum of the catches reported for FAO 18 (Arctic). Catches were reconstructed from data on fishing communities in Canada and Alaska, and from various government and non-government sources for Siberia. Based on national data supplied to FAO since 1950, catches have been reported as 12,700 t in toto (reported on behalf of the former Soviet Union). This compares with our reconstructed catches of over 950,000 t, i.e., 770,000, 89,000, and 94,000 t by Russia, USA, and Canada, respectively for the same time period. The reconstructed catch (mainly whitefishes in Siberia, various salmonids in Alaska, and Arctic char in Canada) was 24,100 t year−1 in 1950, but declined to 10,200 t year−1 by the mid-2000s. Reasons for these trends are discussed by country, along with sources of uncertainty (particularly large for Siberia). Catches were allocated to Large Marine Ecosystems to present ecosystem-relevant baselines for the impact of fisheries on the Arctic, which can be expected to increase, as industrial fisheries move into a warming Arctic following the invasion of boreal species, unless countries apply precautionary ecosystem-based management approaches.


Catch reconstruction Amerasian arctic Small-scale fisheries



This work forms part of the Sea Around Us Project, a scientific collaboration between the University of British Columbia and the Pew Environment Group, Philadelphia. Work on arctic Alaska was funded by the Lenfest Ocean Program. We would like to thank the Institute of Arctic Ecophysiology, Canada, for providing access to a resource and report network, and the members of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada who took personal time to assist: J. Mathias, M. Treble, P. Richard, J. Martin, and M. Dyck. In Alaska, we would like to thank J. Menard, J. Magdanz and J. Simon of ADG&G, S. Murphy of ABR, Inc. and B. Wilson, North Pacific Fishery Management Council for providing additional data and insights, and Oceana for support and assistance. We thank C. Ragner of the Norwegian Institute for making available to us reports on Siberia. Our thanks also go to B. Campbell for the GIS work, and to A. Atanacio for preparing the figures.



© Springer-Verlag 2011



Zeller, D., Booth, S., Pakhomov, E. et al. Polar Biol (2011) 34: 955. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-010-0952-3



