Snapshot of the Arctic Marine use today

"In some areas, we are living on borrowed time. I just hope it doesn't take a major cruise ship or tanker disaster in the Arctic to get our attention", says Ben Ellis, managing director in Institute of the North to the institutes weekly newsletter, Top of the World Telegraph.

Ben Ellis is together with dr. Lawsom Brigham from the same institute two of the main authors to the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment which recently was approved by the Arctic Council Ministers in Tromsø, Norway in April. The so called AMSA project calls for member states to work on enhancing Arctic marine safety, protecting people and the Arctic environment and building Arctic marine infrastructure.

The four-year project, led by Canada, Finland and the United States, involved more than 200 experts in maritime and related fields and included 13 major workshops in Canada, Finland, Iceland, the Russian Federation and the U.S, as well as 14 town hall meetings in selected Arctic communities.

"It was a massive effort to provide a snapshot of Arctic marine use today and the plausible future of Arctic marine transport," said Ben Ellis, co-editor of the AMSA 2009 Report and managing director of the Institute of the North, "but the real work is yet to be done. The recommendations need to be implemented."

To enhance Arctic marine safety, the AMSA recommends Arctic Council member states (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation and the United States) link with international organizations, such as the UN's International Maritime Organization, to advance the safety of Arctic marine shipping. Through the assessment, the Arctic Council indicated member states will cooperatively support efforts at the IMO to strengthen, harmonize and regularly update international standards for vessels operating in the Arctic, including supporting the updating and the mandatory application of relevant parts of the Arctic Guidelines. The assessment also calls on strengthening passenger ship safety plying Arctic waters and a comprehensive, multi-national search and rescue accord.

To protect Arctic people and the environment, the study recommends a suite of measures including conducting surveys of Arctic marine use by indigenous communities, exploring the need for internationally designated areas for the purpose of environmental protection and collaborating with industry in support of research and technology transfer to prevent the release of oil into Arctic waters.

The assessment notes a dearth of marine infrastructure in most of the Arctic and highlights the critical need for improvements in the areas of: ice navigation training; navigational charts; communications systems; port services; accurate and timely ice information; places of refuge and icebreakers to assist in response.

"As one of the AMSA lead countries, the U.S. needs to develop a systematic plan of how to implement these recommendation," said Ellis.

The AMSA project was managed and developed under the auspicies of PAME - one of the Arctic Councils permanent working groups.