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Fisheries in the Context of Hydrocarbon Resource Development on the Continental Shelf
Murmansk 28-30 October 2009
Resolution of the Conference
The international conference was organised by the Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and
Oceanography (PINRO) with the support of the RF Federal Agency for Fisheries and Government
of the Murmansk Region. Significant contributions to the arrangement of the conference came from
the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), and non-governmental
organizations World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Friends of the Earth Norway (FoEN).
Сonference gathered for the first time specialists in fisheries science, fishing and petroleum
industry, representatives of state authorities and NGOs.
At the conference 26 reports have been heard covering legal, technical and economic sides of the
meeting between fisheries and petroleum. Also much time has been given for discussions and free
introductions.
There is a growing interest for oil and gas fields, located in the shelf areas of the world ocean, the
Barents Sea and other Arctic areas, in particular. An extensive development of the petroleum
resources here will involve the installation of numerous production platforms, building of longdistance pipelines, increased transportation by tankers, construction of land-based and marine
terminals, and building of processing plants in the coastal zone.
The explored and prospective petroleum resources are mostly located in important fishing areas
with high biological productivity. From Lofoten in the westernmost tip of the Barents Sea, where
decision on oil exploration is pending in the Norwegian Government, to the Shtokman and
Prirazlomnoe fields in the eastern Barents Sea, which are in an early development stage, the
hatching, nursing and feeding areas of the North-East Atlantic cod stock are located. This stock is
one of the most valuable fishable populations in the world. Capelin, spawning along the northern
coast of Norway and feeding in the central part of the Barents Sea, is a key species in the food chain
of the Arctic, since it is consumed by other mass species of fish, birds and marine mammals. And
other valuable commercial species are harvested here, such as herring, haddock, and red king crab.
The habitants of the Barents Sea are also corals, the world's northernmost, and rare species of
marine mammals, like walrus and sperm whale. In the coastal zone the world's biggest colonies of
sea birds, puffin and guillemot, are located.
Commercial biological resources of the Barents Sea are inexhaustible if managed well. They are the
economic basis for the livelihood of thousands of people in Norway and Russia and the food for
many more. The yearly fish production is on average enough for the yearly consumption of about
30 million people.
This implies that future development of oil and gas fields off shore must be conducted with
minimum risks for present or future fisheries. Legal and technical arrangement must recognize that
the fishing industry has a permanent presence in the Barents Sea, has been there long before oil and
gas exploration and will be there long after the oil and gas has been extracted.
The petroleum activities in the harsh conditions of the Arctic involves a series of risks, such as risks
of oil spills from platforms and tankers, risk of introduction of alien species with increased
transport, risk of damage to the ecosystem from chemicals used in the extraction of oil etc. Some
risks that are, for instance, related to the impact of seismic activities on fisheries, the long-term
emission of a small amount of pollutants on the environment, underwater pipelines located on the
migration routes of valuable commercial species, have not been well identified yet. In finance, risk
has a cost. In the Barents Sea, the fisheries and environment may be asked to carry a risk that is
beyond calculation.
At present, the use of progressive high-budget nature-conservation technologies is a conscious
choice of oil and gas companies, which in most cases helps to prevent or minimize damages to
commercial species and fishermen fishing in the areas of oil and gas exploration. However, the
preventive compensation of damage to commercial biological resources is a topic actively discussed
at the conference. Participants of the conference have noted large gaps in the Russian legislative and
normative basis, which regulates financing and compensatory measures, excessive formalization,
and lack practical experience in realization of compensatory measures for fisheries in the areas of
the continental shelf.
The petroleum industry on the continental shelf is new, technology based and capital intensive.
Petroleum exploitation rights are concrete, linked to a specified area, and defined in national and
international law. The fisheries are more traditional and less capital intensive, with a rights system
which is constantly changing and with rights that are not linked to a limited area but to the right to
fish a certain volume. These are also fundamental differences between the fisheries and petroleum
industries. Government, regulators and law makers must recognize these differences to avoid
growing conflicts and the loss of productivity of biological resources of the continental shelf
regions.
Participants of the conference formulated the following principles to ensure conservation of
biological resources for many decades:

biological resources must be used sustainably. It means that exploitation of oil and gas fields
should not deprive future generation of traditional, healthful and inexhaustible food;

the principle “ Priority is to conservation, not to restoration of destructed environment” must
be applied; all arguable questions must be solved in favour of conservation of biological resources;

so called “no-go areas” must be established, that are, on one side, rich in their natural
resources and remarkable in biological diversity and, on the other, vulnerable to the impact of
petroleum complex and shipping.
The conference participants underlined at the end of three days of interaction the importance of
creating and maintaining arena for further collaboration between fishermen, specialists in oil and
gas industry, environmentalists, researchers and politicians from different countries. Only in terms
of the active dialog and consideration of mutual interests, conditions for reasonable harmonization
of biological diversity conservation and rational use of natural resources can be reached. This will
ensure social needs in energy and provide future generations with clean and inexhaustible
environment that will be the basis for the long-term economic development of people inhabiting the
Barents Sea coast and other areas of the continental shelf.