Coast Guard studies shipping lanes for Bering Sea routes

  • By Dan Joling
  • Tuesday, November 17, 2015 10:10pm
  • News
FILE - This May 1, 1970 file photo shows inhabitants of Little Diomede, rolling petrol drums over the frozen surface of the Bering Strait near their island home in Diomede, Alaska. The U.S. Coast Guard has laid out a 4-mile wide route through the Bering Sea into the Arctic Ocean and is reviewing public comment on whether it should become the first commercial shipping lane along Alaska's west coast. More Arctic sea ice melting each summer from global warming is making it easier for ships to plot routes through the environmentally sensitive Bering Strait.  The rise in traffic is prompting concerns among U.S. Coast Guard officials about the potential dangers of a vessel crashing and leaking oil.  (AP Photo/Eddie Adams, File)

FILE - This May 1, 1970 file photo shows inhabitants of Little Diomede, rolling petrol drums over the frozen surface of the Bering Strait near their island home in Diomede, Alaska. The U.S. Coast Guard has laid out a 4-mile wide route through the Bering Sea into the Arctic Ocean and is reviewing public comment on whether it should become the first commercial shipping lane along Alaska's west coast. More Arctic sea ice melting each summer from global warming is making it easier for ships to plot routes through the environmentally sensitive Bering Strait. The rise in traffic is prompting concerns among U.S. Coast Guard officials about the potential dangers of a vessel crashing and leaking oil. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams, File)

ANCHORAGE — More Arctic sea ice melting each summer from global warming is making it easier for ships to plot routes through the environmentally sensitive Bering Strait, and is prompting concerns among U.S. Coast Guard officials about the potential dangers of a vessel crashing and leaking oil.

The Coast Guard is taking steps to plot a shipping route that will help the ships safely navigate the 53-mile wide waterway separating Russia and Alaska. Among the vessels slated to pass through the strait is a cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 passengers on a 32-day voyage next year through the Northwest Passage.

The federal agency has laid out a 4-mile wide route through the Bering Sea into the Arctic Ocean and is reviewing public comment on whether it should become the first commercial shipping lane along Alaska’s west coast.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

“We want to really try to keep these large commercial vessels that we’re starting to see on an ever-increasing basis far enough from land, and we believe that we can do that with a route,” said Lt. Kody Stitz, a project officer in the agency’s waterways management branch.

Through 2015, Arctic summer sea ice has declined 13.4 percent per decade relative to the 1981 to 2010 average, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.

Cargo companies have not created polar shipping service between continents, but on the U.S. side of the Bering Sea, the Coast Guard is monitoring research missions, tour boats and shippers delivering goods to Alaska’s Arctic Ocean whaling communities.

In 2014, the Coast Guard counted 340 transits through the Bering Strait made by about 120 large vessels. That volume is not enough to generate a shipping lane study, Stitz said. However, the region is both ecologically sensitive and remote, he said.

“We don’t have good response capabilities. We don’t have a good salvage response up there. We have inadequate pollution-fighting equipment up there,” Stitz said. “If something were to go wrong, it really could compound itself.”

The agency doesn’t want a repeat of the Selendang Ayu, a 738-foot freighter that lost power, ran aground and broke in two on Dec. 8, 2004, on the north side of Unalaska Island in the Aleutians. It spilled 66,000 tons of soybeans and an estimated 350,000 gallons of oil.

Six of the 10 crew members died when a rogue wave crashed into a Coast Guard helicopter lifting them from the vessel. The helicopter crew was rescued. “We don’t want to see that happen in the Bering Sea, or further north,” Stitz said.

One of the vessels planning to transit the Bering Strait next year is the 820-foot luxury cruise ship, the Crystal Serenity, which will travel from Seward, Alaska, to New York by way of the Northwest Passage, a route that winds through waters in far northern Canada.

The Crystal Serenity acknowledged the remoteness of its destination: passengers must carry a minimum of $50,000 in emergency medical evacuation insurance coverage. The cruise ship expects to move in ice-free water but will carry two marine pilots who can navigate through ice.

Crystal Cruises spokesman Paul Garcia said an escort vessel with ice-breaking capability and a helicopter that can scout for ice will accompany the ship on the trip that sold out within a month after online reservations went on sale last year.

“Safety is paramount with Crystal,” Garcia said. “We’re going to all extremes to make sure that our guests know we take it very seriously.”

The proposed shipping lane starts at Unimak Pass in the Aleutian Islands, which sees upward of 5,000 transits annually, mostly cargo vessels operating between Asia and the U.S. West Coast.

The proposed Bering Sea route covers 730 miles, taking a path farther west of Nunivak Island and farther east of St. Lawrence Island than most ships use now. The route can guarantee that boats will be in at least 60 feet of water, Stitz said.

Environmental groups strongly encourage creation of the shipping lanes but want large vessels to safely pass environmentally sensitive natural features. For example, the Diomede Islands provide nesting colonies for nearly 7 million crested, least and parakeet auklets and other species, the largest bird concentration in Alaska, according to the groups.

The groups want a speed limit through the Bering Strait, a passageway for hundreds of thousands of animals that migrate from the North Pacific to the Arctic Ocean, including bowhead and gray whales.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants the proposed lane shifted west in the southern Bering Sea to protect endangered right whales.

Others call for more study to determine if the lane overlaps with migratory routes of bowhead whales.

The Coast Guard hopes to complete its route study by next summer.

More in News

Vendors fill the floor of the 38th Annual Kenai Peninsula Sport, Rec & Trade Show at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex in Soldotna, Alaska, on Friday, May 2, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Annual Sport, Rec and Trade Show offers outfitting for adventure

The expo runs through Sunday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.

People carry signs and stand as part of a May Day protest alongside the Sterling Highway in Soldotna, Alaska, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
May Day demonstrators champion workers’ rights, protest Trump policies

About 150 people turned out in Soldotna to celebrate International Workers’ Day.

Homer Electric Association Board President Dan Furlong speaks after being reelected at the utility’s annual meeting of the members at Kenai Central High School in Kenai, Alaska, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
HEA elects status quo board

President Dan Furlong, Deputy Secretary Wayne Ogle and Director Erin McKittrick will all retain their seats.

tease
Sterling Highway reconstruction delayed

The project, which spans from Anchor Point to Baycrest Hill, is anticipated to begin next spring.

tease
33rd Shorebird Festival starts next week

This year’s festival, running May 7-11, features “Wildlife DJ” Dr. Ben Mirin as keynote speaker.

A veterinarian with Greater Good Charities escorts dog Maggie into a free spay/neuter clinic at the Moose Pass Fire Station in Moose Pass, Alaska, on Thursday, March 21, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Free spay and neuter clinic coming to Soldotna this month

The upcoming clinics will be held May 29-June 1 at Redoubt Elementary School in Soldotna.

Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion
Project Manager Jerrod Stafford, of Western Marine Construction, points to a map of the Kenai River Bluff Stabilization Project while giving an update on the project in Kenai on Wednesday.
Bluff project construction to start this month

The project set to be completed in October.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower (R-Wasilla), right, explains why he is changing his vote on a compromise education bill during the Wednesday, April 30, 2025, floor session at the Alaska State Capitol. (Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire)
Education funding bill passes Legislature with veto-proof margin

Education commissioner tells school districts to support governor’s policy goals or risk losing funds.

Geoff Kirsch and students from Sayéik Gastineau Community School sing during a rally for early education funding at the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Spend more for programs or PFDs? Legislators say reality may mean less money for both.

As protesters plea for reverse to program cuts, Senate budget leader says PFD may shrink to $1,000.

Most Read