The high pollution of Norway's coastal waters with microplastics, which the Gulf Stream brings there from the coasts of the USA and Great Britain, may lead to the cessation of fishing in a few years, said Maxim Tokarev, a member of the "Clean Arctic - Vostok-77" expedition organized by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"Coastal salmon fishing will probably have to be stopped within a few years due to exceedingly high concentrations of microplastics," Tokarev said.
At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that salmon is an important part of the diet of the Sami, indigenous people of Norway totaling about 60,000 people. They are engaged in reindeer husbandry and fishing in estuaries and bays.
"Reduced access to salmon will make it harder to continue to lead a traditional way of life. Some of the Sami will have to look for earnings in cities, which will lead to a sharp decrease in the number of native speakers of the Sami language and culture in a generation. Fortunately, the Sami of the Murmansk region are not so dependent on fishing in the Barents Sea, but they are also concerned about the problem of water pollution," Tokarev added.
According to him, the "Clean Arctic - Vostok-77" expedition discovered plastic objects of British and North European origin on the northernmost and easternmost islands of the Barents Sea. The reason, according to scientists, is that the Gulf Stream collects water with debris from the eastern shores of the United States, the northern shores of Britain and the European Union and brings it to the Norwegian and Barents Seas, a "dead end" of the stream, TASS reports.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
