What about the fish? An ocean-centric reading of the Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement

The objectives of marine governance are usually considered to be the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources. However, the premises of all marine governance emerge from land-based knowledge, offering a static and anthropocentric view of the oceanic world. Although entire marine ecosystems are changing rapidly due to climate change, pollution, overfishing and other human impacts, political and legal scholars often regard the oceans and seas, and their inhabitants, as the passive objects of politics and governance. Investigating a specific marine governance agreement, namely the Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement, through an ocean-centric reading, the article seeks to challenge the state-centric and anthropocentric postulates of contemporary marine governance frameworks. The article especially focuses on the subject of the Agreement – the fish – and scrutinises the unquestioned premises of the Agreement regarding the fisheries and the human–fish relations in the Central Arctic Ocean. By doing this, the article aims to offer a more nuanced, oceanic viewpoint on Arctic marine governance, a viewpoint which is needed to put forward post-anthropocentric governance frameworks in the future.