Overfishing, Contamination Pose Risks to Arctic Barents Sea

STAVANGER, Norway, August 24, 2004 (ENS) - Overfishing of cod and haddock, oil spills, radioactive contamination, and modification by invasive species are all threatening the ecological integrity of the Barents Sea, says a new report released here today at the Offshore Northern Seas conference.

Prepared by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA), the report says that overexploitation of fish is the most important issue since the major commercial fishes are exploited beyond safe biological limits.

The Barents Sea, considered a part of the Arctic Ocean, is bordered by Franz Josef Land in the north (top left corner, obscured by clouds), Novaya Zemlya in the east (top right corner), and Svalbard in the west (not visible). (Photo courtesy NASA)

The research team that produced this report was chaired by the Russian Academy of Science and Murmansk Marine Biological Institute in Murmansk and supported by Akvaplan-Niva and the Norwegian College of Fisheries Science in Tromsö. The report was funded by the Global Environment Facility and the Norwegian government.

The information on which the report is based was gathered in four workshops, three of them conducted in Murmansk. The first two were conducted in Murmansk in September 2001 and February 2002. In these two meetings, only Russian experts participated.

The last two workshops were carried out with support from Norwegian partners, one in Tromsø, Norway in February 2003 and the other in Murmansk in October 2003. The task team was made up of local experts having broad expertise concerning the environmental and socio-economic impact assessment in the Barents Sea region.

The workshop participants concluded that the most pressing issue affecting the Barents Sea is the overexploitation of fish. There has been overinvestment in fish harvesting, unequal payments for the access to bioresources, price of vessels’ quota-rights, high taxes, high fish prices, failures of economic reforms in Russia, and market failures.

Low selectivity of fishing gear and lack of alternative gear has contributed to the problem.

Political disagreements within the Joint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission over the setting of annual total allowable catch quotas, plus gaps in fishery statistics, and faults in the fishery management system are partly responsible for the overfishing, according to the report.

Inappropriate legislation regulating the fisheries sector in Russia, as well as scientific uncertainty, and inappropriate assessment methods have also contributed to the problem.

The report recommends that the Joint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission be used to develop measures for the sustainable exploitation of fish in the Barents Sea, including regulatory and economic instruments.

The study team has concluded that the expansion of oil and gas industries in the region is a real and imminent threat to the ecosystem.

There are vast oil and gas reserves on Russia’s Arctic shelf. The report predicts that the development of these oil and gas deposits will increase oil transport to 40 million metric tons by the year 2020.

This will increase the pressure on the Northern Sea Route, which crosses the Barents Sea, by a factor of six, the UNEP report says. "The risk of accidental oil spills is expected to increase in the near future."

Speaking at the launch of the report today, UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said, “The increased exploration activities for petroleum resources in the Barents Sea, the offshore developments and the shipping of oil and gas along the coasts represent significant potential threats to this vulnerable Arctic ecosystem.”

Russia's Murmansk region houses more radioactive wastes than any other region in the world, the report says. The nuclear wastes on the Kola Peninsula are a legacy of the former Soviet Union’s powerful nuclear-powered navy and icebreaker fleet, as well as infrastructure for their maintenance.

A Russian nuclear submarine being decommissioned at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk. (Photo by Sevmash courtesy Bellona)

Concerns about radioactive contamination revolve around the safety of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management, and the dismantlement and remediation of decommissioned nuclear powered submarines and civilian vessels, nuclear support and service vessels and nuclear storage vessels, and the remediation of other radioactively dangerous sites.

Storages for spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste must be constructed, the report says, and there is also need for improvement and upgrading of systems for monitoring, control, prevention and response to emergencies, and protection against radiological terrorism.

In addition, improvement of safety systems for the transportation of radioactive material is required, the report advises.

The radiological protection activities in the region are regulated by a number of national and international conventions and agreements detailed in the report. Most recently, in June 2003, Russia signed the frame agreement on a multilateral nuclear ecological program in the Russian Federation. The list of participants includes Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, the United States, Finland, France, Sweden, and EU.

The agreement provides for the cooperation in the field of safe handling of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste, dismantlement of decommissioned nuclear powered submarines and icebreakers in Northwest Russia. There is also a special fund managed by the European Bank for the Reconstruction and Development for these purposes.

Trilateral Norwegian-U.S.-Russian military environmental cooperation began in 1996. The aim of the cooperation is to clean polluted military areas in Northwest Russia, including radioactive pollution sites. One project in this program is the elaboration and testing of a ferro-concrete container for the storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuel from obsolete nuclear powered submarines.

Oil platform and vessel in the Barents Sea (Photo courtesy Friends of the Earth International)

Another aspect of the problem is the unintentional introduction of alien species through ballast water of oil tankers. Alien species introduced unintentionally form a serious threat to the economy of northern Norway as well as to coastal communities in Russia, says the UNEP report.

There is plenty of fresh water in the region, but it is increasingly polluted, the report states.

Large smelter complexes, mining and metallurgy, ore processing and pulp and paper industries have had a negative impact on adjacent rivers and lakes.

Poor coverage by sewage treatment plants, as well as ineffective treatment in the existing plants, have led to pollution of freshwater resources. Polluted water from municipal services, poultry farms and cellulose and pulp industries is discharged into the Severnaya Dvina, Pechenga and Kola rivers.

The GIWA assessment of the Barents Sea is part of a global comprehensive and systematic assessment of the environmental conditions and problems in transboundary waters, led by UNEP. It comprises marine, coastal and land areas, including ground waters. The assessment is done in 66 transboundary water regions where teams of local experts focus on five major concerns including 22 specific water related problems.

The full report is available online at: http://www.giwa.net/barentssea/