Northeast Passage open for commercial shipping

Old Rocks

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Oct 31, 2008
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Arctic Sea Ice Melt Provides Opening For Commercial Shipping - Irish Weather Online

Icebreaker-free shipping through the Northern Sea Route can now proceed following a near-record rate of Arctic ice melt, Russia’s environmental agency announced on Wednesday.

The Federal Hydrometeorological and Environmental Monitoring Service said that an expansive area of the Northern Sea Route has allowed for the opening of shipping lanes fit for cargo traffic between Europe and Asia.

A Belgium-owned tanker ship has already successfully transported oil condensate through the Bering Strait to a port in China.

The Northern Sea Route, sometimes referred to as the Northeast Passage, is a shipping lane officially defined by Russian legislation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from Murmansk on the Barents Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait and Far East. The entire route lies in Arctic waters and parts are free of ice for only two months per year.

However, a 56% decline in ice extent in many areas has now left enabled marine shipping to continue through to the middle of autumn.

Bloomberg reported last month that Russia plans to revive a Soviet-era Arctic sea passage to service energy projects and provide a shorter supply route to Asia. Opening the northern sea route may allow state-owned company Sovcomflot to speed natural-gas deliveries to China and secure new cargos between Europe and Asia by offering a quicker alternative to the Suez Canal.
 
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/NEWIMAGES/arctic.seaice.color.000.png

Northeast Passage open, Northwest Passage nearly so. Interesting pattern of ice breaking up on the northern coast of Greenland. Wonder how that will effect the glaciers on the coast there. The icepack appears to be more broken up than in past years, perhaps an effect of the continued thinning of the ice. And there is a broken area extending into the pack from the straight between Greenland and Ellismere.
 
Russia grabbin' for the Arctic resource goodies...
:eusa_eh:
Russia's Arctic 'sea grab'
August 14, 2011 - Russia is expected within months to claim to the United Nations its right to annex about 380,000 square miles of the Arctic.
In a multinational race to seize the potential riches of the formerly icebound Arctic, being laid bare by global warming, Russia is the early favorite. Within the next year, the Kremlin is expected to make its claim to the United Nations in a bold move to annex about 380,000 square miles of the internationally owned Arctic to Russian control. At stake is an estimated one-quarter of all the world's untapped hydrocarbon reserves, abundant fisheries, and a freshly opened route that will cut nearly a third off the shipping time from Asia to Europe.

The global Arctic scramble kicked off in 2007 when Russian explorer Artur Chilingarov planted his country's flag beneath the North Pole. "The Arctic is Russian," he said. "Now we must prove the North Pole is an extension of the Russian landmass." n July, the Russian ship Akademik Fyodorov set off, accompanied by the giant nuclear-powered icebreaker, to complete undersea mapping to show that the Siberian continental shelf connects to underwater Arctic ridges, making Russia eligible to stake a claim. Around the same time, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced the creation of an Arctic military force tasked with backing up Moscow's bid.

"We are open for a dialogue with our foreign partners and with all our neighbors in the Arctic region, but of course we will defend our own geopolitical interests firmly and consistently," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in July. Among other things, Moscow plans to build at least six more icebreakers and spend $33 billion to construct a year-round port on the Arctic shores. Russia, Canada, the United States, Denmark, and Norway own Arctic coasts that could, theoretically, be extended as far as the North Pole. But in the absence of a regional deal, tensions are mounting.

This month, Canada holds Operation Nanook, an Arctic military exercise designed to send a stern message to Moscow. Canada also has plans for its own territorial claim. The US, which has not signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, under which any territorial divisions would be made, is also beefing up its regional military might.

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The dream of explorers to find the NW passage is finally realized.

This is still another example of why the adage

"Be careful what you wish for because it might come true!"

has some validity.
 

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