In August, American Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, approved a plan that will see a large part of the Arctic remain off-limits to commercial fishing. Federal officials have announced that that plan will go into effect the 3rd of December.

On Tuesday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that the plan was being put into place in order to create a structured process by which to consider all requests in regards to fishing in the Arctic. The plan will also give researchers and scientists a chance to better understand the changes that are happening in the Arctic, particularly the effects of global warming and the melting of the sea ice.

Chris Krenz, conservation group Oceana’s Arctic project manager, agrees.

“We need a rush of scientists into the Arctic, not an armada of cargo ships, oil platforms and fishing trawlers.”

Glenn Sheehan, Executive director of Barrow Arctic Science Consortium, (whose mandate is increasing collaboration between the Arctic community and scientists) said that there is a need for more baseline data in the Arctic.

“You can’t manage an environment if you don’t understand it,” he said.

Three years ago the North Pacific Fishery Management Council started looking at different options for managing fishing in the Arctic. The decision to ban commercial fishing in a large part of the Arctic until further studies are done on the impact of global warming on the area and Marine life includes all finfish and shellfish except for Pacific halibut and Pacific salmon, which are managed under a different group.

The plan to ban commercial fishing will affect almost 200,000 square miles of American waters in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas and has received support from the Marine Conservation Alliance, which represents the seafood, crab and groundfish industries in Alaska.