In 2014, after several years of steady growth, shipping traffic on the Northern Sea Route dipped sharply.
This year, if permit applications are any indication, traffic on the route -- which follows Russia's Arctic coast from the Barents Sea to the Bering Strait -- will bounce back to the levels it reached in the previous years, according to a report from Quartz.
Russian authorities issued a total of 631 permits to sail the route last year, Quartz reported, though only 53 transits were actually made. By this time last year, some 589 of those had been issued.
More have already been issued so far this year -- 652 -- with time remaining for additional permits to be granted.
Routes through the Arctic opened earlier this month, as sea ice reached its annual minimum.
While most marine traffic in the Arctic is commercial shipping aimed at finding shorter routes, especially between Europe and East Asia, waters of the Far North have witnessed other mariners, too.
Earlier this month, a Chinese captain leading an international crew set a record, sailing a trimaran from Murmansk to the Bering Strait in 13 days, while a Frenchman completed a solo, two-year rowboat transit of the Northwest Passage.
In 2016, the cruise ship Crystal Serenity will carry some 1,700 passengers and crew from Seward to New York City via the Northwest passage -- a prospect worrying some Alaska communities along the route.