Arctic anadromy and congested regime governance

• Date: 01 March 2022

32022 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 52 ELR 10193

ARTICLES

by Christopher R. Rossi

SUMMARY

The Tana River in northernmost Norway is the most diverse Atlantic salmon river in the world. Its native

salmon population has declined dramatically and resulted in a f‌ishing ban that has affected indigenous life

and distressed the local economy. Concern is mounting over the secondary infestation of Pacif‌ic pink salmon,

transplanted decades ago, which creates a potential threat to the river’s genetic diversity and challenges the

regime structures of international f‌isheries. This Article reviews the problem of anadromy in the context of the

Tana River, and suggests that international regime theory must adopt a broadened ecosystem approach to

the Arctic that accounts for this and ot her consequences of transplanted species into waters where they never

were before.

ARCTIC ANADROMY AND

CONGESTED REGIME GOVERNANCE

The Tana River in the sub-Arctic region of Finnmark

in northernmost Norway is the most diverse Atla n-

tic salmon river in the world. It is one of Europe’s

largest virgin river deltas. Its native salmon population

has declined dramatically, and existential concerns have

resulted in a shing ban t hat has aected indigenous Sámi

traditional life and the local economy. Now, concern is

mounting over an additional and unexpected threat—the

secondary infestation of pink salmon, transplanted by

the Soviets from Pacic waters into the Kola Peninsula

decades ago.

Salmonids are anadromous species. ey spawn in

freshwater, migrate to the open sea, and then return to

begin and end their life cycle. Secondary spread of the

invasive Pacic salmon into the Tana and adjacent Nor-

wegian rivers creates a potential threat to the genetic

diversity of the river and surrounding plant and animal

life. e threat of anadromy potentially challenges the

regime structures of international sheries, complicating

solutions and u nderstandings of the problem and the gen-

erative international relations grammar that can contrib-

ute to a coordinated solution.

is Article discusses the signicance of anadromy to

international law, literally and metaphorically reviewing

the problem in the context of the Tana River. After laying

out background in Part I, Part II notes the anadromous

life cycle of salmonids and uses it as a metaphor to inves-

tigate the secondary spread of pink salmon to Norwegian

Atlantic salmon rivers, focusing on the Tana. Structural

problems facing international regime governance in the

Anthropocene, and the biologica l elision a nd cohabitation

of lifestyles of salmonids on the high seas, challenge the

grammar and structure of regime theory and its language

of convergence and complexity.

Part III deals with these challenges and the unranked

(heterarchic) challenges to overlapping and decient gover-

nance structures in the contested and congested waters of

international sheries. Part IV concludes thi s discussion by

focusing on contributions of informal and localiz ed regime

structures, speculating as well that the prodromal period

of species transplantation, animated by climate change, is

coming to an end, and that adaptations to regime theory

are needed to conform to the coming elision of biological

species into newfound geospace.

I. Background

e sub-Arctic Tana River runs 256 kilometers (km) (159

miles) from south to north along the Norwegian-Finnish

border.¹ It forms from the conuence of the Anárjok ha and

Karasjok (Kárášjohka in Sámi) headwaters, located in the

1. e river is called Teno in Finnish, Tenojoki in Sámi, and Deatnu in North-

ern Sámi. is Article uses the Norwegian name, Tana.

Christopher R. Rossi is an Associate Professor at the Arctic University of Norway (UiT) and an

associate member of the Aurora Center at the Norwegian Center for the Law of the Sea.

Author’s Note: The author thanks Alf Håkon Hoel, Paul

Wassmann, Torvald Falch, Sander Goes, Hilde Bjørnå,

members of the UiT Governance Research Group, Magnus

Elias Eilertsen, Øystein Solvang, Anders Lind, Lena Gross,

Anne-Hedvig Salmi Nordsletta, and Tor Christian Dahl-

Eriksen for helpful comments and suggestions.

Copyright © 2022 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.

52 ELR 10194 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 32022

heart of Sámi country in Karasjok Township, Norway.² Its

nal stretch courses through Finnmark County in north-

eastern Norway and debouches into the Tanaord, which

leads to the Barents Sea. In total, the Tana is 361 km long.³

irty-one percent of its total catchment area of 16,380

km² drains in Finl and, and the remainder in Norway. is

Arctic wetland sy stem creates the fth-longest river in Nor-

way. It is Finnmark’s largest river and one of the county’s

18 salmon-spawning watercourses leading to the sea.

A. The Most Diverse Salmon River in the World

e Tana delta is one of Europe’s largest virgin river del-

tas. e geography of the Tana basin has been shaped over

millennia by water and sediment discharges following ice

jam breakups and oods. Tundra heaths, peat bogs, shel-

tering forests, and surrounding highlands shape the river

terraces of the delta, creating a uvial geomorphology of

“ripple-like bedforms” (linguoid bars) and sandy dunes. It

is rich in waterfowl, seals, rare Baltic whitesh, sea trout,

19 species of ducks, 22 species of waders, biodiverse plant

life—and Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).¹

Fifteen tributaries ow into its main channel and

36 sub-tributaries connect to them, creating breeding

grounds for approximately 30 “unique genetic salmon

groups specic to that river.”¹¹ Norway is home to more

than 400 watercourses with Atlantic salmon and approxi-

2. E A  G K, C  F R

M P: A E   F R M

P   F-N R T 14, 17 (Norwegian Water

Resources and Energy Directorate, Report No. 16-2012, 2012). Karasjok is

home to Sámediggi, the Sámi Parliament, and the Sámi capital. See North-

ern Norway, e Sami Parliament at Karasjok, https://nordnorge.com/en/

artikkel/the-sami-parliament/ (last visited Jan. 20, 2022).

3. Mapacarta, Tana River, https://mapcarta.com/13900080 (last visited Jan.

20, 2022).

4. World Atlas, Longest Rivers in Norway, https://www.worldatlas.com/ar-

ticles/longest-rivers-in-norway.html (last visited Jan. 20, 2022) (behind the

Glomma, Pasvikelva and Ivalo, Numedalslågen, and Gudbrandsdalslågen

and Vorma Rivers).

5. Finnmark’s salmon spawning rivers include Grense Jakobselva, Karpelva,

Munkelva, Neidenelva, Klokkerelva, Nyelva, Vesterelva, Bergbyelva, Vestre

Jakobselva, Storelva (Vadsø), Skallelva, Komagelva, Syteordelva, Kongsf-

jordelva, Risordelva, Sandordelva (Gamvik), Tanaelve, and Altaelva. See

Odd Terje Sandlund et al., Pink Salmon in Norway: e Reluctant Invader,

21 B I 1033, 1037 (2019).

6. R S I S, R I S: N-

 T sec. 3, at 1 (2018), https://rsis.ramsar.org/RISapp/

les/RISrep/NO1197RIS_1803_en.pdf. See also Miljøstatus, Nasjonale

laksevassdrag of lakseorder [National Salmon Rivers and Salmon Fjords],

https://miljostatus.miljodirektoratet.no/Tema/Ferskvann/Laks/Nasjonale-

laksevassdrag-og-lakseorder/ (last updated May 4, 2021) (mapping Nor-

way’s 52 national salmon rivers and 29 national salmon ords).

7. A  K, supra note 2, at 15.

8. Id. at 14.

9. John D. Collinson, Bedforms of the Tana River, Norway, 52 G

A: S A P G 31 (2017).

10. R S I S, supra note 6, sec. 1, at 1; see also A-

  K, supra note 2, at 15.

11. Panu Orell & Jaakko Erkinaro, River Teno Salmon, L N. R. I.

F., https://www.luke./en/natural-resources/sh-and-the-shing-

industry/sh-resources/salmon-2/river-teno-salmon/ (last visited Jan. 20,

2022) (“e River Teno [Tano] fosters c. 30 genetically dierentiated

salmon populations.”).

mately one-quarter of the world’s healthy population.¹²

A 2012 report found that the Tana supports the largest

wild stock of Atlantic salmon in the world.¹³ It was then

described as “one of the few remaining large river systems

that still support abundant Atlantic salmon with little or

no human impact.”¹

e Tana is Norway’s and Finland’s most productive,

natural salmon river.¹ Petroglyph carvings attest to the

ancient importance of salmon to human sett lements in the

Finnmark region.¹ Salmon remain foundational to local

Sámi traditional cu lture and their 2,00 0-3,000-year sett le-

ment hi st or y,¹ popular to sports anglers worldwide,¹ and

signicant to the livelihood of other Finnish and Norwe-

12. See Torbjørn Forseth et al., e Major reats to Atlantic Salmon in Norway,

74 ICES J. M S. 1496, 1497, 1498 (2017) (presenting a map of

Norwegian Atlantic salmon watercourses).

13. See S   R T S P 4 (Tana Monitoring

and Research Group, Report No. 1-2012, 2012), https://www.luke./wp-

content/uploads/2017/05/2012_Tana_status_report_nal.pdf (presenting

the rst report of the group).

14. Id. at 4 (“except for shing”). Finland and Norway signed a new Tana Moni-

toring and Research Group Memorandum of Understanding in December

2017, although the objectives regarding management of the salmon stocks

remained the same. e rst status assessment of the reestablished Tana

Monitoring and Research Group was issued in 2018. See S  

T/T R S P  2017 (Morten Falkegård &

Jaakko Erkinaro eds., Tana Monitoring and Research Group, Report No.

1-2018, 2018).

15. See Varanger Activities Camp, Tana River, http://varangerkite.no/activities/

nature-adventure/tana-river/ (last visited Feb. 4, 2022) (noting it is also Eu-

rope’s most productive salmon river, with catches up to 250 tons per year).

16. See United Nations Educational, Scientic, and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO), Rock Art of Alta, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/352/ (last vis-

ited Jan. 20, 2022) (detailing the engravings of circumpolar fauna dating

from around 5,000 B.C.E.).

17. See Skuvlaalbmá Áslat Niilas Áslat-Aslak Holmberg, Bivdit Luosa—To Ask

for Salmon: Saami Traditional Knowledge on Salmon and the River Deatnu

2 n.2 (2018) (M.A. thesis, Arctic University of Norway (UiT)) (discussing

the notion of traditional Sámi shing culture in the Deatnu River valley

and the specic meaning and use of Sámi weir (buođđu), grillnet (njánggo-

erbmi), and drift net (golgadat) techniques); Juha Hiedanpää et al., Beliefs in

Conict: e Management of Teno Atlantic Salmon in the Sámi Homeland in

Finland, 66 E’ M. 1039, 1041 (2020). See also Steinar Pedersen, e

Coastal Sámi of Norway and eir Rights to Traditional Marine Livelihood,

3 A R.  L.  P. 51, 52 (2012) (noting the loss of indigenous

rights relating to thousands of years of traditional practices regarding sh-

ing and the use of adjacent terrestrial resources, pinpointing problems as-

sociated with tradable sh quotas). See Svetlana Vinogradova, Russian Sámi

in Context of Indigenous Security, in U  M F 

H S: P  N I P 190,

196 (Kamrul Hossain & Anna Petrétei eds., Brill 2016) (noting that salmon

shing often is more determinative of traditional Sámi lifestyle than rein-

deer herding).

18. See N A S C O (NASCO),

T M A  S F  N 1 (2014)

[hereinafter NASCO M A] (noting from ocial Nor-

wegian records that approximately 50% of the salmon catch by xed gear is

caught in Finnmark County).

Copyright © 2022 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.