As Arctic nations convene this week in Greenland to discuss the future of one of the world's last frontiers, Alaskans and Americans alike are growing concerned about increasing shipping and Arctic development.
The Alaska mainland sits 53 miles from Russia, the Bering Strait slicing between the two, with the Pacific and Arctic oceans converging in the middle. This narrow passage teased Captain Cook and other early Arctic explorers who sought a shipping route across the top of the earth, but the forbidding climate and icy environment prevented their dreams from becoming reality.
More than 200 years later, the Arctic is now melting and there's interest in emerging shipping lanes, as well as the billions of barrels of oil estimated to be lurking beneath the oceans. For Alaskans, the increased shipping and potential development bring both hope for an economic future linked to the opening of the Arctic, as well as fears of what such development may do to the people, environment, animals and fish that call this world home.
The U.S. Coast Guard wants to know how best to deal with increasing shipping and support of offshore oil development in the Arctic, and last fall the agency began conducting a preliminary research project in advance of a more formal "Bering Strait Port Access Route Study."
"The goal is to let people know that we are doing this study to find out about how ships should be routed," said Lt. Faith Reynolds with the U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska.
By May 9, when the official comment period ended, an oil company, a shipping captain, Alaska Native villages, a school employee, a borough, a shipping association, two research councils, state environmental regulators, and even a man from Maryland had all weighed in with a common theme: Directing ships in an orderly way is better than letting an unmonitored, free-for-all to take place in the Arctic.
Established routes will help keep people safe by reducing the risk of collisions, the chance of striking shallow ground or underwater rocks or shipwrecks, and the potential for oil spills. Clear rules to follow will help ensure foreign ships aren't discharging waste in Arctic waters or allowing hitchhiking microorganisms to invade the Arctic's ecosystem, according to those who commented on the Coast Guard's study.
Protecting marine mammals that also use this ocean highway is paramount. Whales, walruses, seals, fish and birds pass through in annual cycles, and ensuring they aren't disturbed by ships, including noise and pollutants, is a significant priority.
"Harvest surveys have estimated that approximately 70 percent of the food by weight harvested by our members in the wild comes from Kotzebue Sound, mainly in the form of beluga whale, bearded seal, ringed seal, spotted seal, salmon, trout, sheefish, herring, smelt and saffron cod. This makes the health of the environment of Kotzebue Sound, the Chukchi Sea, and the Bering Sea very important to the continued access to these food animals," wrote the Native Village of Kotzebue.
Also not to be discounted is management of shipping traffic in a region in which many marine species are either listed or being considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act, including polar bears, four to five species of whales, ringed and bearded seals, walrus, Steller's and spectacled eiders, Kittlitz's murrelets and yellow-billed loons, according to the Center for Biological Diversity and four environmental groups, which reminded the Coast Guard it has a duty to ensure the animals aren't jeopardized, as well as a responsibility to work on behalf of conservation and recovery.
"Indeed, the PARS (Port Access Route Study) is the primary federal action by which certain provisions, such as the reduction of ship strikes, can be properly carried out," wrote Rebecca Noblin, Alaska director for Center for Biological Diversity, along with representatives of Earth Justice, Friends of the Earth, Oceana, and Pacific Environment.
The Coast Guard released the public comments a few days before the eight-nation Arctic Council convened in Nuuk, Greenland, for its ministerial meeting. Among those participating are Alaska Lt.Gov. Mead Treadwell, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. On Thursday, the council voted on a binding search and rescue agreement and urged "the completion as soon as possible of work at the International Maritime Organization to develop a mandatory polar code for ships" -- an end target of the Coast Guard's Bering Strait Study.
For Alaska and Russia, the changes are felt especially in the Bering Strait, where the two countries are so close that you can see each shoreline from the other. Because the narrow passage cuts across cultural and political lines as distinctly as it connects the Arctic and the Pacific, coordinating all of the interests that convene in the 53-mile-wide strait will no doubt be complex.
Tribes are seeking government-to-government consultations, communities want to protect the ability of their indigenous hunters to go in search of food -- whales, walruses, seals, commercial fisherman may want to pass through and perhaps one day in the future even fish along the way; the oil and gas industry is looking for ways to get cargo to and from its existing sites and support new exploration; mines are looking to ship the mineral ore they've extracted, and neighboring Canada and Russia have a vested interested in who transits the waters and how the travel is controlled. Some believe the prospect of a year-round shipping corridor will also ease the seasonal congestion that occurs now as ships race to get to and fro once the waterway is ice free.
"Vessels currently under assessment for use by Shell, are assumed to be based in Dutch Harbor and crossing the Bering Strait year round. Year-round resupply activities will reduce or minimize traffic density by spreading the activity over an extended period of time instead of concentrating the activity in a shorter time interval," noted Kent Satterlee III, Manager for Shell Exploration's offshore regulatory policy, in response to the Coast Guard's query.
Last year Russia sent a large, ice-breaking bulk tanker through the Bering Strait and across the Arctic and carrying hydrocarbons bound for Asia. This year it already has more than a half-dozen such trips planned through the Bering Strait region. As Arctic ice continues to melt, it is expected that more and more ships will use the open water to service existing oil and gas development onshore and to support new offshore exploration. Other ships may simply blow through, using the ice-free Arctic as a short cut to get to and from international destinations.
Communities along coastal Alaska are already under the assumption that a deep water port in the Arctic will be critical to safe operations, as well as a way to boost local economies. Presumably, the Coast Guard will need ships and other enforcement vessels on hand closer than the agency's Kodiak-based locale in the southern part of Alaska. Ships will need a place to load and unload cargo, and to take refuge in the event of a storm or other delays. Should a ship break down, it will also need a place to undergo repair. In response to the Coast Guard's request for feedback, officials from the cities of Nome, in western Alaska, and Kotzebue, above the Arctic Circle, each said they are actively pursuing port expansion and development.
Establishing international safety rules is the ultimate target, since any rules the United States develops are only applicable to U.S. ships. The only way to ensure all ships passing through are held to the same standards is to develop a plan that the United States, the Russian Federation and ultimately the International Maritime Organization will heed.
It's been 30 years since the Coast Guard studied shipping routes in the Bering Strait, and it believes it will take several years before a new agreement for shipping protocols at the international level are finalized.
At the Arctic Council's meeting, Treadwell said he is pursuing such cooperation. "Gov. Sean Parnell has asked me to be here to represent the state of Alaska's interests as we tie down the first 'binding' agreement that has been made in the Arctic -- intended to save lives of Alaskans on our north and west coasts -- by promoting cooperation in search and rescue," Treadwell said in an Alaska Dispatch commentary on Thursday.
Such cooperative efforts, many believe, must also be marshaled for response to oil spills. "A trans-boundary agreement with Russia for oil spill response is critical and should be pursued in conjunction with development of safe shipping," wrote Larry Dietrick, director of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conversation in his public comments to the Coast Guard.
"Successful oil spill response in this area will depend on a coordinated response with Russia and equivalent requirements for oil spill response capability and financial responsibility are needed on both sides of the international boundary."
Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com