Publications

Many of the commonly occurring species of the Bering Strait region are important for subsistence and commercial fishing.

The Bering Strait, a waterway between the United States and Russia, is a marine wildlife "super highway" that supports amazing animals, from beluga whales to spectacled eiders and king salmon. As warming temperatures melt Arctic sea ice, increasing commercial ship traffic through the Strait is adding stress and risk of accidents to an already rapidly shifting environment.

WWF has five recommended actions that the United States should take to protect the Bering Strait.

1. Share information in real-time
   Knowledge is power, and real-time information can protect people and nature. Expanding implementation of digital navigation technology on ships can aid response to accidents, prevent movement through protected areas, and keep Indigenous communities informed. One of the most valuable knowledge-sharing tools is an Automated Information System (AIS) that can track position, speed, and the course of ships. This technology increases compliance and is vital to enforcing the following four recommendations. It can also be used to share up-to-date and real-time information about hazards, weather, wildlife, local boats, and other data relevant to maritime safety.
   
   
2. Improve traffic management
   Shipping and cruise traffic in the region have almost doubled in the last 10 years as summer sea ice melts. That much traffic needs organizing. The US should adopt a modern, internationally accepted sea traffic management process for the Strait in coordination with Russia. A sea traffic coordination center would track ships and ensure they are safely passing through the area in designated two-way routes. Dynamic protection of the environment, regular monitoring of ships and wildlife, and minimized conflict with subsistence hunters will all improve with management, and officials can update crews in real-time with current news on all movement through the region.
   
   
3. Protect wildlife and indigenous communities
   The Bering Strait is one of WWF's highest Arctic conservation priorities. The US government needs to work with coastal communities and conservation groups in Alaska, as well as key entities in Russia, to establish Areas to be Avoided, especially around the islands of Big and Little Diomede, located in the center of the Strait and split between the US and Russia. These islands have especially sensitive ecological and indigenous value. As the Bering Strait region rapidly warms, flexible protected areas will also be needed to protect wildlife as they move throughout their changing environment.
   
   
4. Create area-specific industry practices
   As ship traffic increases, so can wildlife injury or boat collisions, and the discharge of sewage, garbage, and grey water, resulting in major damage to the environment. Rules for ships regarding speed, discharge, and designated routes need to be put in place and made specific to this area to ensure safety for all. These measures also need to be flexible to account for real-time changes in the environment. The industry can act quickly and introduce simple solutions like slow speed limits, which will give whales in the area more time to react and move away from ships, allow ships to move away from each other, reduce noise pollution, and make ships more fuel efficient.
   
   
5. Avoid and be prepared for disasters and emergencies
   Alaskans have learned from experience the long-lasting damage an oil spill can have on natural and human communities. Even today, the impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 are still being felt. The Bering Strait can’t take an Exxon Valdez-size spill when the environment is already increasingly stressed from climate change. Above all, the most important step is to implement accident prevention measures. At the same time, the US needs to improve its domestic capabilities, as well as develop a plan for strong emergency prevention and response in collaboration with Russia, so that both countries can work together to respond to spills and collisions rapidly and efficiently.

Now is the time to work with all stakeholders to implement these recommendations and protect one of the Arctic’s most biologically productive environments and vital migratory corridors. By collaborating around the Arctic Circle and embracing safety measures and technology, we can keep the region as stable as possible for as long as possible.

To foster engagement and collaboration, WWF is running US-Russia Science Corners throughout 2021:

1. Within the 2021 Alaska Marine Science Symposium in January, a WWF session was organized for Russian and American researchers to present the variety of their work across the Strait, available to watch back in English and Russian.
2. In April, a webinar was hosted with the Alaska Ocean Observing System that brought together Russian and Alaskan ornithologists to discuss studying and observing bird life in the Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, and Arctic Ocean. The webinar is available to watch back in both English and Russian.

Learn more about the wildlife that live in the Bering Strait and WWF’s full shipping recommendations through the PDFs below.

Have the world's fisheries entered the digital age? Today, best practice guides for fisheries are filled with references to all things electronic; yet, how many fisheries are utilizing these technologies in their routine operations?

This report provides an evaluation of the status of electronic collection and reporting of key fisheries and product information in major fishing nations and regions. Electronic fisheries information systems (EFIS) that allow for the accurate and verifiable collection of fisheries data‚ – and the sharing and tracing of that data from harvest through the value chain to final point of sale‚ – are slowly developing in regional, national, and global systems, in both developed and developing countries, and national and international fisheries.

Although it has been illegal to kill sea turtles in Mexico since 1990, poaching for human consumption remains a major threat to the recovery of these endangered species. The most common reasons for poaching include direct economic benefits from the sale of turtle meat and other products, lack of law enforcement, and the ease of bribing authorities. Strong cultural traditions promoting the consumption of turtles exacerbate the problem, as do family and extended social networks that cut across poaching and enforcement communities, reducing the likelihood of legal sanctions. Corruption, largely in the form of bribery, facilitates this illegal sea turtle take and trade.

This third report in the No Food Left Behind series further examines post-harvest loss and looks at options for recovering surplus produce and decreasing loss rates. Focusing on labor as one of the main reasons farmers are often unable to harvest, the report looks for solutions that can make economic sense for growers, potentially create a new job market, and get edible, surplus food to the food rescue and recovery network.

Through an iterative human-centered design and research process, the research team asks the question of whether the agricultural industry could leverage technology and the gig-economy workforce to tackle the challenge of getting surplus produce to market. 

Learn more about No Food Left Behind.

The COVID-19 coronavirus, which is suspected to have originated in Wuhan in the Hubei province of China, has become a global pandemic. With illegal and unregulated wildlife markets likely to increase the risk of outbreaks in the future, WWF commissioned GlobeScan to conduct a survey among the general public in Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam to measure and better understand opinions on what support looks like for the closure of all illegal and unregulated markets, within the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Between the 3rd and the 11th of March, 2020, GlobeScan interviewed 5,000 respondents. Respondents were randomly selected and were asked about their sentiments on the coronavirus outbreak in their respective country and their opinions on illegal and unregulated markets selling wildlife. For the purpose of this survey, ‚Äòwild animals‚' were defined as non-domesticated, non-livestock terrestrial animals (non-insect and non-aquatic).

Last year the Amazon captured the world‚'s attention as fires tore through the world‚'s largest rain forest. This report outlines what enabled these fires, and what actions WWF and partners have taken to aid in response and recovery.

Nature-based Solutions are varied approaches to address a wide range of challenges for society, while also benefiting people and nature. Recently, Nature-based Solutions have emerged as essential tools to support broader efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.