319
Arctic Yearbook 2013
Heidbrink
cheapest supply of raw-material for industrial processing of fish, but for at least somewhat exotic
high quality products in comparably small quantities.
Although the competition between domestic fisheries and international distant-water fishing fleets is
no longer the main issue when it comes to fisheries in high-latitudes, rather it is the competition
between highly sophisticated large scale fishing fleets and comparably small-scale and less
technologized fisheries, the structure behind the conflicts about fishing in Arctic waters remains
basically the same. On the one hand there are large companies mainly operating for shareholder-
value even if these shareholders might be citizens of Arctic or sub-Arctic nations, and on the other
hand there are small-scale operations with comparably low levels of financing available for the
implementation of modern technology. Thus the issue of how easily technology is available to
certain fisheries remains one of the most important questions when it comes to recent developments
within Arctic fisheries.
The larger trawling companies operating today in Arctic waters followed more or less the same
approach as their predecessors flying the flags of the various now historic distant-water fishing
nations. Every new technology available on the market has been adapted to their fleets as soon as
the technology became available, and more importantly these fishing companies were often the main
drivers behind the development of such technology. However levels of technology never
experienced before have more recently characterized local fisheries throughout the last decade. GPS
navigation, digitalized fish-finders, communication via cell-phone, internet-based data-exchange with
the buyers on the main markets, etc. are technologies that are no longer only available for highly
industrialized fishing vessels, but basically for any fishermen that can afford a smart-phone. Thus
while differences in available technology may have been the characterizing feature for the fisheries
and related conflicts throughout most of the 20
th
century, today there is largely an equilibrium when
it comes to the technological standards of small scale subsistence fisheries and large scale
industrialized fisheries. Whenever boarding a fishing vessel that is operating in high-latitudes, it is
more or less certain that the digital revolution has already entered the vessel, regardless if one is
talking about a trawler of up to 100m total length, or an open boat of less than ten meters. Does this
mean that the fisheries of the Arctic today are fisheries with the same chances and opportunities
regardless if they are small or large- scale fisheries?
In an ideal world, the answer to this question should be of course a simple yes. But unfortunately
the answer is much more complex and basically tied to the legal systems that are in place for
regulating the fisheries. While in the pre-UNCLOS III world, it was up to a certain degree who was
friend or foe and thus the Arctic nations had a kind of common enemy – the distant-water fishing
nations – the focus of Arctic fishing conflicts have now shifted to conflicts within the Arctic
societies (Stokke, 2001). It is no longer a question of discourse and conflicts among different
nations, but a question of political debate within the Arctic nations. The question is no longer if the
coastal nation or the distant-water fishing nation should own the fish off the coast, but if local
populations or larger (industrialized) corporations should.