Prominent Arctic experts and more than 1,000 scientists urge governments to pause industrial development in the Central Arctic Ocean

NICE, France – In a significant showing of international unity, Ocean Conservancy and Oceans North today announced that over 1,000 scientists have banded together to demand protection for the Central Arctic Ocean, a 1.1 million square mile ecosystem around the North Pole. Arctic experts from Canada, China, Greenland, France, Japan, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States were joined by scientists from around the world in urging nations to adopt a precautionary approach based on Indigenous and scientific knowledge that pauses new industrial activities in the Central Arctic Ocean. 

“The Central Arctic Ocean is the heart of the Arctic,” said Dr. Henry Huntington, Ocean Conservancy’s Director of Science, Arctic & Northern Waters Team, who helped lead the effort. “Its ecosystems and sea ice are vital to Indigenous communities and help regulate the global climate. With new industries being proposed for this critical sea, it’s essential we allow Indigenous knowledge and science to lead the way. Only an international agreement that adopts a precautionary approach can protect this critically important international area.”

“The Central Arctic Ocean is connected to coastal seas that Arctic Indigenous Peoples have used since time immemorial,” said Hilu Tagoona, Oceans North’s Senior Arctic Advisor. “That’s resulted in a unique system of knowledge, and also a unique responsibility towards these waters. The CAO Fisheries Agreement made history by formally recognizing the role that Indigenous knowledge can and should play alongside science in determining the region’s future, and the success of that model has set a new, much-needed standard for inclusion in the issues that affect us as Arctic peoples.”  

The Central Arctic Ocean has long been covered in year-round sea ice that shrinks and expands with the season. Summer ice coverage is rapidly shrinking, opening the area to industrial development for the first time. Ocean Conservancy and Oceans North are calling for a new international agreement pausing the start of transpolar shipping and deep-sea mining in this unique sea. This agreement would build on the success of the Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement, which paused commercial fishing in the region.

Read the full letter here. Ocean Conservancy experts are available to give interviews on this topic, either in person at the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, or remotely via Zoom. To arrange interviews in Nice, please contact Roya Fox, Senior Communications Manager, at [email protected] or 202.280.6285.

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