With more ships traveling in the Arctic, the U.S. Coast Guard is proposing a new two-way shipping route along the northern Alaska coast. The idea is to make travel in the region safer for the environment and more efficient.
The route would be a four-mile-wide corridor for ships to travel in both directions, said Coast Guard Officer Camden Martin. It would run from the northern edge of the Bering Strait to the US-Canada maritime border, she said.
"It would mitigate the amount of damage to subsistence hunting and environmentally sensitive areas," Martin said.
In 2018, the Coast Guard recommended a similar two-way route through the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska. Martin said the new route will be a continuation of that passage.
The Coast Guard's icebreaker Healy surveyed the proposed route last year, revealing depth discrepancies and uncharted hazards, Martin said. This year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also conducted hydrographic research of the area.
Martin said the proposed route will avoid Hanna Shoal, a shallow area in the Chukchi Sea that is an important habitat for marine mammals and seabirds.
"The route planning really did take into consideration mammal migration patterns in order to minimize the amount of impact the shipping would have on these environmentally sensitive areas," she said.
Martin said the Coast Guard is in contact with tribes along the proposed route, including in Wainwright, Nuiqsut, Utqiagvik, Point Lay and Point Hope. She said that subsistence hunters asked to keep the route 70 nautical miles offshore.
Ship traffic has been increasing in parts of the Arctic, like the Bering Strait region. David Seris, an assistant chief with the Coast Guard's waterways management branch, said that the new route would help accommodate that growth.
Seris said the plan would also help ensure that any increase in resource development in the Arctic won't interfere with shipping. And it would make travel in the Arctic more predictable.
Right now, he said, people might be avoiding the area because they're wary of uncharted shoals or higher insurance costs.
"Having modern, up-to-date surveys and a specified area where they're supposed to go sort of eliminates some of the barriers that might keep people from using the Arctic as a future trade route," Seris said.
The Coast Guard has been accepting comments from the public and tribes on the proposed route. Once the draft has been finished with revisions, they hope to take it to the International Maritime Organization, which meets in the spring.
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