美俄將聯手規範北極附近海域捕魚

MOSCOW — The recent diplomatic thaw between Russia and the United States over the crisis in Ukraine has had little impact there, but it is being felt somewhere else — in the Arctic Ocean, near the North Pole.

莫斯科——最近，俄羅斯和美國因烏克蘭問題降至冰點的外交關係出現瞭解凍跡象，它對烏克蘭幾乎沒有影響，但卻可以在另一個地方感覺得到，那就是北極附近的北冰洋。

Out on the sea, the polar ice cap has been melting so quickly as global temperatures rise that once improbable ideas for commercial activities, including fishing near the North Pole, are quickly becoming realistic.

在海洋中，隨着全球氣溫上升，極地冰蓋融化的速度如此之快，曾經無法開展的商業活動正在迅速變成現實，比如在北極附近捕撈漁業資源。

The United States, Russia and three other nations with Arctic Ocean coastlines agreed last year to regulate trawling in Arctic waters newly free of ice. But the deep freeze in East-West relations after Russia’s annexation of Crimea delayed the expected signing.

去年，美國、俄羅斯，以及另外三個在北冰洋海岸線上的國家同意，對在北極冰蓋新近消融的水域開展拖網捕魚的活動加以規範。但在俄羅斯吞併克里米亞之後，迅速惡化的東西方關係推遲了預期中的協定簽署。

The day after Secretary of State John Kerry met with President Vladimir V. Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi last week, Russia announced it would sign the fishing agreement.

美國國務卿約翰·克里(John Kerry)上週在黑海度假勝地索契會見了俄羅斯總統普京，第二天俄羅斯即宣佈將簽署這份漁業協定。

“I think the Arctic genuinely is shaping up to be the exception to the rule,” said Scott Highleyman, director of the Arctic Program at the Pew Charitable Trusts. “The U.S. and Russia seem to be trying really hard to keep talking to each other.”

“我認爲北極地區確實正在成爲一個特例，”皮尤慈善信託基金(Pew Charitable Trusts)的北極計劃(Arctic Program)主管斯科特·海利曼(Scott Highleyman)說。“美國和俄羅斯似乎真的在很努力地保持相互交流。”

The fishing deal was negotiated in February 2014 among Russia, Norway, Canada, the United States and Denmark, which controls Greenland, where the talks were held.

這個漁業協定的談判是2014年2月在俄羅斯、挪威、加拿大、美國和丹麥之間舉行的，會談地點選在丹麥管轄的格陵蘭島。

It was expected to be signed within weeks of the meeting, but the timing turned out to be dismal when, that month, street protesters in Kiev, Ukraine, overthrew President Viktor F. Yanukovych, a Russian ally, and most East-West cooperation froze.

協定原計劃在會議召開後的幾周內簽署，但糟糕的是，那個月在烏克蘭基輔發生了街頭示威，俄羅斯的盟友、烏克蘭總統維克托·F·亞努科維奇(Viktor F. Yanukovych)被推翻，結果東西方之間的合作大多數都中止了。

As recently as April, ill-will over Ukraine carried into a meeting of the Arctic Council, an international organization created to foster cooperation in the region, despite diplomats’ appeals to focus on the melting ice instead.

就在不久前的今年4月，儘管外交官們呼籲大家把目光集中在融冰上，烏克蘭問題引發的敵意，還是蔓延到了北極理事會(Arctic Council)的一場會議中。北極理事會是一個國際組織，成立宗旨是促進各國在北極的合作。

“There is no room here for confrontation or for fearmongering,” said Russia’s envoy to the meeting, Sergei Y. Donskoi, the minister of environment and natural resources.

“不能在這裏搞對抗或者危言聳聽，”這個會議的俄羅斯特使、該國環境和自然資源部長謝爾蓋·Y·頓斯科伊(Sergei Y. Donskoi)說。

The United States opened negotiations on the fishing accord six years ago, after concluding that enough of the polar ice cap melted regularly in the summertime that an agreement to regulate commercial fishing near the North Pole was warranted.

六年前，美國開啓了這個漁業協定的談判，因爲美國發現有足夠多的極地冰蓋在夏季定期融化，需要一項協定來規範北極附近的商業捕魚活動。

The accord would regulate commercial harvests in an area far offshore — in the so-called doughnut hole of the Arctic Ocean, a Texas-size area of international water that includes the North Pole and is encircled by the exclusive economic zones of the coastal countries.

該協定將對一片遠離海岸的水域開展的商業捕魚活動加以規範。這片水域被稱爲北冰洋中的“甜甜圈洞”，面積和德克薩斯州差不多大，北極點就在其中。這片水域周圍是各國的專屬經濟區。

The part of the doughnut hole that is thawing most quickly, above Alaska and the Russian region of Chukotka, is well within the range of Asian industrial fishing fleets. Whatever their disagreements over Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the other shoreline states have a shared interest in protecting the high Arctic from unregulated fishing that could affect these countries’ coastal stocks, conservationists say.

“甜甜圈洞”中解凍最快的部分，位於阿拉斯加和俄羅斯楚科奇地區以北，在亞洲工業捕魚船隊的作業範圍之內。無管制捕撈可能會影響俄羅斯、美國和其他幾個北極沿岸國家的沿海魚類。無論它們在烏克蘭問題上有何分歧，在防止北極高緯度地區的無管制捕撈上，它們有着共同的利益，環保人士說。

“Some people call this Arctic exceptionalism,” Clive Tesar, the spokesman for the Arctic Program at the World Wildlife Fund, said in a telephone interview. “We can have our disagreements elsewhere, but in the Arctic, we have to cooperate.”

“有些人說這是‘北極例外主義’，”世界野生動物基金會(World Wildlife Fund)的北極計劃發言人克萊夫·特薩(Clive Tesar)在電話採訪中說。“我們可能在其他地方存在分歧，但在北極，我們必須開展合作。”

The agreement among the five countries is seen as a first step to a broader international accord to protect the open water until the fish stocks there, like Arctic cod, can be more fully studied. Fish may migrate into the ice-free area as the ocean warms, tempting fishing fleets to follow.

五國之間的這個協定，被視爲通向更寬泛的國際協議的第一步，該協議將保護開闊水域，直到那裏的魚類資源得到更加充分的研究，比如北極鱈魚。隨着海水變暖，魚類可能會遷徙到無冰區，捕撈船隊可能會緊隨其後。

The accord is unusual for protecting a huge area from human exploitation before people have had much chance to exploit it. Before the last decade, scientists estimate, the doughnut hole had been icebound for about 100,000 years.

該協定的不同尋常之處在於，它在人類尚未有多少機會開採一大塊地方的資源之前，就阻止了人類對它的無序開採。據科學家估計，在上個十年之前，“甜甜圈洞”已經被冰封了約10萬年。