OPINION: Indigenous Alaskans ask President Biden to establish an Arctic Ocean Marine National Monument

“What I really want to do ... is conserve significant amounts of Alaskan sea and land forever.’’ — President Joe Biden

We, Alaskan Indigenous peoples who have lived along the Arctic Ocean coast of Alaska since time immemorial, respectfully ask President Joseph Biden to designate a U.S. Arctic Ocean Marine National Monument before leaving office in January.

The 1906 Antiquities Act gives the president the authority to designate federal lands and waters of historic, prehistoric and scientific importance as national monuments. We feel the U.S. Arctic Ocean deserves such a designation.

Bowhead whale and walrus populations recovered from the near decimation by commercial whalers; this is a recent example of what these exploitative industries are capable of. Our people rely on these nigrun (animals and fish that sustain us) for our survival and identity. Today, as Arctic Sea ice continues to decline at an alarming rate, industrialists are eyeing these changes as an opportunity to exploit these very waters for their financial profit.

This monument designation would give autonomy over our ancestral lands to our people. Beyond the interests of our descendants and local communities, we are proposing this monument for everyone.

Science confirms that what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic, and protecting this remarkable region is in the interest of our relatives across the planet. Although federal offshore waters of Alaska support more marine mammals, seabirds and fish than the rest of the nation combined, these marine ecosystems currently have no permanent protections, such as marine sanctuaries or marine monuments. Existing administrative protections in U.S. Arctic waters, including the current offshore oil and gas drilling and commercial fishing prohibition, can be easily disregarded by a future administration or Congress.

Our proposed Arctic Ocean Monument would prohibit offshore oil and gas drilling, commercial fishing (e.g. trawling) and seabed mineral extraction. It would enhance local scientific monitoring and further development of our Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Arctic marine ecosystems.

As the monument would be co-managed by tribal governments in the region along with the federal government, it will help to reconcile federal oversight with tribal rights and stewardship for these offshore waters that sustain our people.

We propose that the Arctic Ocean Monument encompass all U.S. federal waters (3-200 miles offshore) from the Northern Bering Sea north along the Russia-U.S. maritime boundary, and east to the Alaska/Canada maritime boundary (approx. 219,000 square miles). It would also include the Extended Continental Shelf seabed claims recently made by the U.S. in international Arctic waters north of the 200-mile limit (approx. 200,000 square miles).

Eighteen presidents from both parties have used the Antiquities Act to designate national monuments, including five Marine National Monuments in federal waters, four in the remote central Pacific, and one in the North Atlantic. These existing marine monuments were designated by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama in the final weeks of their presidential terms. We were encouraged by President Biden’s Jan. 27, 2021 executive order “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” calling for the conservation of 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 (”30x30″).

We offer our sincerest thanks to President Biden for the support he has provided for Indigenous peoples and federal land conservation here in Alaska. And as he will leave office in January, this is President Biden’s last chance to leave a historic Alaska ocean conservation legacy. We look forward to working with President Biden to craft an Arctic Ocean Marine National Monument proclamation that prioritizes Indigenous sovereignty.

Nauri Simmonds, Inupiaq, is executive director for Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic (SILA). Delbert Pungowiyi, Inupiaq, is a Tribal environmental advocate from Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island.

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