The Need for a Polar Portal

Op-Ed by Neill Conroy

Accidents are the norm in the transportation industry. They happen regularly ashore, afloat and in the air. The marine industry tends to have dramatic ones, though, and when they happen the world takes notice. 

The Titanic sank: We ended up with SOLAS. In 2007 the small passenger ship Explorer was holed near the South Shetland Islands in the Antarctic Ocean when she struck multiyear ice, expecting much softer first-year ice: The IMO began drafting a set of guidelines for ships operating in polar waters. In 2008 the Ciudad de Ushuaia ran aground off the Antarctic Peninsula, giving impetus to the IMO’s work. 

In 2009 the IMO adopted the guidelines, and the Clelia II was pushed ashore on Peterman Island, also in the Antarctic Peninsula. The need for a mandatory Code was born. The following year it was the Arctic's turn: The Clipper Adventurer ran aground on a shoal in Coronation Gulf, Nunavut, in the Canadian Arctic – the shoal had been reported in Notices to Mariners but not yet charted. 

A relatively small problem turned into a major incident due to a lack of adequate infrastructure, the isolation of the location (the vessel was operating in an area that was rarely travelled) and the diversion of Canadian Coast Guard vessels from their regular duties to remove the passengers. A few days later the tanker Nanny ran aground on a sand bar, further reducing the effort to conduct hydrographic surveys and undertake other important scientific work.

Arctic Dreams

The world is getting warmer. As it does, the amount and severity of the ice floating in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans is slowly being reduced and will be reduced much further. And as it does, merchant shipowners dream of being able to go north, avoiding the pirates of Asia and the violence of the Middle East. The passages of the Northern Sea Route over Norway and Russia and the Northwest Passage over Canada and Alaska are well-known. They reduce the time and distance between Asia or western North America and Europe or eastern North America by many days and thousands of miles. 

And it can eliminate risk - no pirates, no misfired rockets. Or can it? Ice is hard. In the case of multiyear ice, very hard. Most ships that are successful in polar trades are purpose-built, with more frames, thicker hulls, more robust machinery with higher power, bigger rudder stocks. The list goes on. 

They are crewed by a small minority of seafarers familiar with the environment, including the cold air. Most seafarers are only familiar with floating ice in cocktail glasses. This minority sees much larger ice cubes, miles across and meters thick. 

The first reaction of most navigators to a chart of northern North America is akin to "Oh, no!" It means narrow passages between islands, many islands, twisting your way through. At least the Northern Sea Route is comparatively a straight line. This minority includes navigators, who will tell you, ad infinitum, that there is no such thing as a straight line in ice. The passage is dictated by the ice, not the passage plan.

Bergy Bits & Growlers

The Northern Sea Route has a few other advantages. The lack of passages means less ice in the way - there are fewer places for it to get stuck. There are no icebergs or their small friends, bergy bits and growlers, and it is in fact the little ones that are the real problem. They are hard to spot visually or electronically because they are so small - or so it would seem. A bergy bit may only stick up two meters and be 10 cubic meters in volume above the water, but under the water there will be 10 times the volume. As a rough guide, each cubic meter weighs one long ton (or one metric ton). Imagine striking a 100-ton object at speed. You will get an awful surprise. 

A growler is smaller, perhaps a quarter of the size, only 25 tons. Still a problem, I think. And all that open water means the multiyear ice farther north has free rein to come as far south as it can, and a large pan can be just as big and possibly even harder than iceberg parts.

You just cannot avoid the heavy collision risk. But you can reduce the risk, with trained ice pilots (they know what to look for) and ice radars (they have been designed to act like ice pilots). If you still end up in ice, the right ship can stay safe, given the right scantling sizes and numbers, the right power, the right steering equipment and all the other protection the right ship provides.

The pilots can get the ship out of the ice and can train other navigators and lookouts on what the bad stuff looks like and what to do about it. Reading ice forecasts takes training and experience, but it is available at a fraction of the cost of a collision with a 100-ton surprise. 

Ice radars are also expensive, but even a better bargain. Put the two together and you have a huge advantage, and the insurers know it. They are still learning what to expect and how to reduce risk, but they are well on their way. They know experience and the right ship, properly outfitted, will save them money and, in turn, will save shipowners money. 

Of course, the owners’ eyes may be fixed on the bottom line, but many others have their eyes fixed on the human lives at risk or already lost, the local environment badly damaged by oil spilled from holed fuel tanks, the damage to wildlife, and the huge toll it all has on the local residents. Nobody compensates them for their losses, which will go on for a very long time. Polar climates dramatically delay recovery from these environmental calamities.

The Portal Seas Portal

That is where the Polar Seas Portal comes in. A website under construction, at
PolarSeasPortal.org, will provide everyone who is interested, from shipowners and managers
down through ships' officers and crew to shore staff and the casual observer, with a road map to the advice available on the web that will provide them with the right information on how to have a safe and efficient voyage through polar waters. It will cover the entire lifecycle, from design and construction or other means of acquisition of the right vessel through outfit, crewing, supply, insurance and contingency arrangements, then on to voyage prosecution and documentation of the lessons learned. Look for it soon. – MarEx 

Neill Conroy is Managing Director and Editor of the Polar Seas Portal.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed herein are the author’s and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.