Radio Script
1998

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Antarctic Fish Free-for-All
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STORY: With fish stocks depleted in many parts of the world, commercial fishermen are heading to Antarctica. Part of the reason is that no one is there to watch them. For example, commercial fishing around Antarctica is taking a toll on the Patagonian toothfish. The fish is prized for its firm, white flesh, and it's protected by an international treaty. Yet it's hard to enforce fishing regulations in a body of water that belongs to no one.

Beth Clark directs The Antarctica Project, an environmental group that promotes conservation of the Antarctic ecosystem.

CLARK: "Many fishers, when northern fisheries started to collapse, looked at the Antarctic as a wonderful place to go and just pillage because there was no sovereign body that would be watching. There's probably a dozen or more countries involved in the illegal fishing or the unregulated fishery."

The waters around Antarctica are regulated to some extent by international treaties. But not all fishing nations have signed them, and countries that aren't members don't have to follow the rules. And even some member nations get around the regulations by posing as nonmembers. They do what's called reflagging--they have their ships fly the flags of countries that aren't signatories to the treaty.

Clark says ending this practice might require trade sanctions. She says countries that adhere to the treaty could refuse to buy fish from countries that don't follow the rules.

CLARK: "Which means that even if that nation is not a member, you can still say to its fishers, 'Hey, you guys need to fish in compliance and these are the rules, otherwise we're going to have these trade sanctions hitting us.'"

Clark says it will take cooperation by nations that have signed the treaty, and those that have not, to protect the ecosystems of Antarctica.

OUTRO: OUTRO: For Arctic Science Journeys, this is Doug Schneider, reporting from Fairbanks, Alaska.