Arctic Safeguards Needed As Sea Ice Disappears, WWF Report Says

Arctic nations should sign a comprehensive agreement to protect the environmentally sensitive region as sea ice melts and the Arctic basin is opened up to shipping, oil and gas drilling, and fishing, according to the conservation group WWF. With the likelihood that summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean will largely be gone within several decades, WWF said the region lacks the laws, management regimes, and infrastructure to deal with potential environmental disasters, such as oil spills. In a series of three reports, WWF called for the creation of an “Arctic framework convention” that would set up regulations and procedures to deal with an anticipated Arctic resource rush. “The melting of the Arctic ice is opening a new ocean, bringing new possibilities for commercial activities in a part of the world that has previously been inaccessible,” said Lasse Gustavsson, incoming Conservation Executive Director for WWF-International. In addition to pollution from fishing and resource extraction, WWF is concerned about the impact on marine mammals from noise generated by shipping and from seismic activity to locate oil and gas deposits.