ARCTIC: Canada’s Missile Defense Funding & more – 5th Nov 2024

Góðan daginn from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 5th of November twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

As political tensions between Russia and the other Arctic nations continue to crumble, Canada is investing in Arctic security at record levels. As reported by the news outlet The Ottawa Citizen, on Monday the 4th of November, the Canadian government planned to build a massive, $4 billion US dollar missile radar system over the North American Arctic. The system is set to be operational by twenty thirty-three and should be able to track missiles, aircraft and even some marinecraft entering Northern Canadian and Alaskan territory.

In other news, the US continues to crack down on Russia’s attempts to build a huge gas industry in the Arctic. On Wednesday the 30th of October, the US State Department announced almost 400 more sanctions largely targeted not at Russia itself, but at companies and people from around the world that have been assisting Arctic LNG2, Russia’s flagship energy project. The existing sanctions have been effective at preventing the sale of any gas from the Arctic LNG2 facility, but the new wave of sanctions aims to prevent any new construction from taking place at the site, in the hope of making the expansion of the facility harder.

Another of Russia’s key industries, fishing, is also struggling. On Friday the 1st of November, the Norwegian-Russian Joint Fishery Commission announced the quota for cod that the two countries have agreed they can catch next year in the Barents and Norwegian Seas. The total twenty twenty-five quota is 340,000 tons, twenty-five percent less than twenty twenty-four and the lowest quota since nineteen ninety-one. This marks the fourth year in a row that the annual cod quota has been reduced as the Joint Fishery Commission tries to keep fishing in the European Arctic at a sustainable level.

Sustainable fishing is not something Arctic predators are thinking about, though. In new research published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Tuesday the 29th of October, scientists recorded the largest predation event ever observed in the ocean. Off the Norwegian coast, the research team was observing swarms of capelin as they migrated from the high Arctic to southern Norway.

By using a sonic radar, the researchers detected that when the capelin swarm came into contact with a large shoal of Atlantic cod, the cod swiftly devoured over half of the capelin — that is, more than 10 million fish. The report details how this event is the largest ever single predation event on record, both in terms of the number of individuals and the size of the area involved.

Keeping the oceans healthy needs more than just sustainable fishing practices since pollution is also key. A groundbreaking study into oceanic pollution published on Thursday the 31st of October in the journal Science Advances collected over 10,000 samples over fifty years from all around the world to track the levels of pollution over time. The study found that in every ocean except the Arctic, toxic chemical levels are dropping, yet the Arctic Ocean only becomes more polluted. The researchers believe that climate change is causing oceanic currents to increasingly flow north, toward the Arctic, resulting in the northern ocean becoming a dumping ground for the world’s pollutants.

To know more about this topic, check out the Rorshok Ocean Update with the link in the show notes!

Switching gears, the Arctic might soon expand politically. The Nordic Council held its annual session in Iceland from the 28th to the 31st of October. The news outlet Arctic Portal reported on Thursday the 31st that on the final day of the session, they adopted a resolution to give full Nordic Council membership to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland Islands.

Greenland and the Faroes Islands are under Denmark's authority, and the Åland Islands, are under Finland’s. These autonomous territories have long pushed for independent representation rather than being represented solely by Denmark and Finland. While more work remains, this move marks a significant step toward full political recognition for the Arctic’s smaller nations.

Next up, Norway’s government is under fire for its twenty twenty-five budget. Last month, the Norwegian government released its new annual budget with personal tax cuts and increases in military spending. High North News reported on Wednesday the 30th of October that getting the money for this has come at the cost of supporting culture in Northern Norway. The twenty twenty-five budget has reduced the funding for cultural institutions in Norway’s Arctic territories by about ten percent, with the published budget declaring that the cultural dimension would no longer be part of the government's High North strategy.

Six major cultural institutions from the north responded to the budget on Monday the 28th, releasing a joint statement that said that defense was not the only important issue and this decision would only weaken Norway’s Arctic peoples.

The U.S. is taking steps to address historical wrongs in the Arctic. On Tuesday the 29th of October, The Associated Press reported that the U.S. Navy issued a formal apology for destroying a Tlingit village in Alaska in eighteen eighty-two. At a ceremony on the 142nd anniversary of the attack, the Navy’s northwest region commander acknowledged the suffering inflicted on the Tlingit people.

The attack reportedly began after the accidental death of a Tlingit shaman aboard a fishing vessel, prompting fears of an uprising that led officials to call in the Navy to eliminate the community.

Canada’s Navy is fighting to end illegal fishing operations in the North Pacific. Fisheries and Oceans Canada released a statement on Tuesday the 28th of October announcing that this year’s coast guard mission to detect and deter illegal fishing in northern waters was completed successfully. The operation reported the detection of vessels engaging in illegal activities like shark finning, harvesting of dolphins, and pollution incidents. This year’s mission was also the first to use an eco-friendly blend of renewable and conventional fuels, as Canada’s fleet takes steps toward being a greener, low-carbon fleet.

On an unrelated note, The controversial practice of whaling in Iceland faces renewed scrutiny as the Icelandic caretaker government, in office since the elected government collapsed last month, is considering renewing a whaling license. On Wednesday the 30th of October, the news agency Iceland Review reported that whaling company Hvalur is leveraging the political instability to push through a six-year license renewal before a new government can potentially end the practice. On Wednesday the environmental group Stop Whaling in Iceland, representing six conservation organizations, Halla Tómasdóttir, urged Iceland’s President to block the unelected government from making such a significant decision, calling it an overreach beyond essential governance duties.

In a follow-up to a story from last week, Iceland’s political instability is only matched by its tectonic instability. Iceland has dealt with constant volcanic eruptions and earthquakes beside the town of Grindavik since last November, but the last month has been welcomingly quiet. However, the Icelandic Met Office reported on Thursday the 31st of October that they anticipate a new eruption in the same region before the year ends, and the next one will be a third larger than the last one. Grindavik reopened to the public last week after a year-long evacuation, but the chances of a Christmas at home for the town’s residents seem slim.

Finally, good news in Finland. The Finnish Wildlife Agency reported on Thursday the 31st of October that Finland's population of Saimaa ringed seals, an endangered species native to the Saimaa lake region, has reached almost 500 individuals. This marks a doubling of the population in just ten years and a huge conservation success for a species considered close to extinction very recently. The Wildlife Agency reported this year that the mortality rate for the seals was particularly high due to a mild winter, but thankfully the number of pups being born is at record highs as the population continues to recover.

To learn more about this rare seal, take a look at the link in the show notes.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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