Abstract

Marine mammals have come to symbolise the dangers of global warming as a result of the major changes in Northern sea ice regimes caused by climate change. There is a conflict between adopting flexible, adaptable regulations that are likely to succeed in Northern locations and policies that have worldwide backing, such as a ban on seal or whaling hunts. This analysis concentrates on the "human dimensions" of Northern marine mammal management as opposed to the "biological dimensions" that are the subject of most wildlife policy that serve to inform policy strategy. The success of conservation is examined in connection to how people interact with one another and how governments operate. Standard evaluations of animal population danger that concentrate on direct sources of take are insufficient to address multi-cause, complex issues like habitat loss brought on by climate change or rising industrialization of the Arctic Ocean. Early conservation policy solutions focusing on the moratorium of take have eliminated or reduced such behaviours as commercialised hunting and large levels of fisheries bycatch, but they may be less applicable today as habitats and climate change become important factors in population dynamics. This essay makes the case for the need for innovative approaches to understanding and regulating interactions between people and marine mammals. The paper analyses the degree to which marine mammal management regimes in three Northern regions—Alaska, Nunavut, and the Finnish Baltic Sea coast—practice adaptive governance, that is, fostering cross-scale (local to international) understanding while giving local actors the freedom to direct the development of regulations that are ecologically sound and likely to be successful. We draw lessons from these cases and use them to suggest specific research and policy suggestions for the marine mammal policy community.