The European Union and partners are in talks to begin preparatory work on an agreement preventing unregulated fisheries in the central Arctic ocean forward.

The legally binding agreement means no party to it can initiate commercial fishing in the central Arctic ocean until there is better knowledge of fish stocks.

Delegations -- representing the European Union, Canada, China, Denmark, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, and the United States -- met in Ottawa at the end of May to create a provisional scientific group to monitor the agreement.