This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The space industry is rapidly expanding. About 20,000 satellites already circle Earth, a number that could reach 100,000 by 2030.
They bring growing environmental costs: space debris, collision risks, atmospheric pollution from launches and reentry and interference with astronomical observations. The problem requires international action. Like the oceans, Earth's orbital environment is a shared space that remains weakly governed by international laws, registries, guidelines and voluntary cooperation.
Corporations and nations are launching and operating satellites for their own gain, while the environmental costs are borne by all of us. How can we effectively regulate Earth's orbital space? The way shared fish stocks are managed by regional fisheries management organizations could offer some useful lessons.
Most regional fisheries management organizations were created for fish stocks in the high seas, beyond the jurisdiction of national states. They are far from perfect, with a history that includes overfishing, disputes over quotas, weak compliance and the entrenchment of powerful fishing interests. Yet they provide an important lesson: Environmental sustainability requires collective management of access to a shared resource.
The analogy may be puzzling: Fish are renewable biological resources; satellites are depletable mechanical objects. Yet the governance of the high seas and that of orbital space share similarities. Fishing vessels generate pressure on fish stocks.
Satellites generate pressure on the orbital environment. Fishing effort can produce bycatch and habitat damage; satellite operations can generate debris and collision risks. Fisheries managers monitor stocks and fishing activities; space agencies follow satellites and debris.
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