High Seas Fisheries Agreement

(e) `exploratory fishing` means fishing for the purpose of assessing the sustainability and viability of future commercial fisheries by contributing to scientific data on those fisheries; Considering that, until recently, ice covered the upper part of the central Arctic Ocean throughout the year, making it impossible to fish in these waters, but that the ice cover of this area has decreased in recent years; “the United States to engage in international talks and take the necessary steps with other nations to negotiate an agreement on the management of migratory and transboundary fish stocks in the Arctic Ocean.” Accession is a notable difference between these three agreements negotiated under the auspices of the Arctic Council and the Central Fisheries Agreement on the Arctic Ocean. The signatories to the Fisheries Agreement do not reflect the accession of the Arctic Council, but consist of Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark, Norway, the Russian Federation, the United States, Iceland, China, Japan, Korea and the European Union. Thus, the geographical scope of caoFA is characterized by purely legal aspects rather than an ecosystem approach such as the Convention area of the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). However, the usual terminology in fisheries agreements is `areas under national jurisdiction` and not `exercise … Jurisdiction of the proceedings”. This wording seems to have been chosen to avoid any implicit statement about the status of the waters surrounding Svalbard (or Svalbard), in which Norway exercises fisheries jurisdiction. In particular, Norway, whose sovereignty over Svalbard was recognised by Article 2 of the 1920 Treaty of Svalbard, has proclaimed a Fisheries Protection Zone (SFPZ) around Svalbard (see map). All A5+5s, with the exception of the EU, are parties to the Svalbard Treaty (several EU Member States are also contracting parties). The issue of the SFPZ is a delicate one, as Article 2 of the Svalbard Treaty states that “hips and nationals of all high contracting parties shall enjoy in the same way the rights of fishing [in the territorial waters of Svalbard]”.

Norway asserts that the term “territorial waters” does not cover the SFPZ and that the right to equal access does not apply to the SFPZ either. . . .