Arctic Shipping

Climate Change, Commercial Traffic and Port Development

Frédéric Lasserre, Olivier Faury, Frédéric Lasserre, Olivier Faury

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781138489431
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351037440
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book considers both the present state of Arctic shipping and possible future trends with reference to the various sectors of maritime transportation: cruise tourism, container traffic and bulk shipping. Ports are analysed as tools that support the strategies of coastal states to foster the development of resource extraction, enhance the attractiveness of Arctic shipping lanes and enable the control of maritime activities through coast guard deployment.

The aim of this book is to draw a picture of the trends of Arctic shipping. How is traffic evolving in Canada's Arctic, or along the Northern Sea Route? Are there significant differences between bulk and container shipping segments when considering the Arctic market? How are the ports and the hinterland developing and what are the strategies behind those? How is the legal framework shaping the evolution of maritime transportation? The contributors to this book consider all of these questions, and more, as they map out the prospects for Arctic shipping and analyse in detail the development of Arctic shipping as a result of multi-variable interactions.

This book will be key reading for industry professionals and post-graduate students alike.

Part I

The economics of Arctic shipping

1 Weather constraints on ships serving coastal settlements in Nunavik, 1993 to 2016

Claude Comtois, Brian Slack and Alex Champagne-Gélinas

Introduction

Maritime transport plays a key role in the economy of Nunavik, the territory north of the 55th parallel in Quebec. While the entire territory lies south of the Arctic Circle, its character and climate possess Arctic characteristics, especially because the coast is ice-bound for more than half the year. It comprises 14 Inuit communities situated along the coast, and a private port facility at Deception Bay that serves two mining operations (see Figure 1.1). There are no road connections between the villages and the outside world. Air transport provides passenger connections and the means to ship high-value goods such as electronics, small appliances and fresh food. All other goods depend on marine connections. There is a major difference between Deception Bay and the villages. Deception Bay provides berths for ocean-going ships, particularly bulk carriers involved in the shipments of minerals produced at the mines located inland over 100 km from the port. It also handles supplies for the mining operations, particularly fuel oil, general supplies and building materials. The port infrastructures permit shipping throughout the year. The villages, on the other hand, possess no formal port infrastructures, and navigation is restricted by seasonal ice conditions in both the approaches and the landing areas. Petroleum products need to be transferred through flexible hoses that are extended between the ships anchored offshore and the land-based storage facilities. Non-liquid products have to be unloaded from the ships to barges that transfer the freight onto the beaches where the cargo is lifted ashore. Service is entirely seasonal. Because of these distinctions the chapter focuses on marine transport serving the 14 communities.

The climate of the Arctic is changing and is predicted to change still further. There is considerable attention being paid as to how shipping will change too (Pizzolato, Howell, Derksen, Dawson, & Copland, 2014). The focus of much of this attention is being devoted towards the possibilities of exploiting the Arctic Ocean as a short cut to link Pacific and Atlantic markets. Most of the literature is optimistic, based on climate change model predictions (Melia, Haines, & Hawkins, 2016; Smith & Stephenson, 2013), and on recent changes in ice conditions (Prowse et al., 2009). Others take a more cautious approach based on shipping knowledge (Lasserre & Pelletier, 2011). There is some research on shipping between the Canadian Arctic and outside markets involving the exploitation of mineral resources (Pizzolato et al., 2014; Giguère, Comtois, & Slack, 2017). Literature on coastal shipping is largely composed of industry publications (Dunn, 2015; Streiger, 2016; Spears, 2016). Academic research is quite limited (Brooks & Frost, 2012). While all of the cited literature stresses the importance of ice conditions, the question of how other elements of Arctic weather impact on shipping operations has been largely ignored. Ice is not the only environmental challenge faced by shipping and to ignore other weather constraints means that forward projections of marine transport in the Arctic are not realistic.

Figure 1.1 The Nunavik region

The objective of this chapter is to examine how marine operations in Nunavik are impacted by weather. It begins by providing a brief overview of coastal shipping in Nunavik: the characteristics of the fleet and how the villages are served. It goes on to analyse how coastal shipping in Nunavik is influenced by several key weather conditions whose importance was raised by the captains of vessels engaged in servicing the villages. Information was obtained through a detailed analysis of ships logs, and hourly and daily weather data from Environment Canada from 1993 to 2016.

Overview of shipping in Nunavik

The 14 villages in Nunavik depend on coastal shipping for the majority of their needs. The ships are loaded mainly in the Montreal region but also in Quebec City and Newfoundland. The ships then sail up the coast of Labrador and into the Hudson Strait to access the villages in Ungava Bay and on the east coast of Hudson Bay. It should be noted that the ships also serve villages on the west coast of Hudson Bay and in Nunavut. Shipping services are seasonal. The shipping season extends for 168 days from mid-June to the end of November. The actual frequency of services vary, with more intense services towards the beginning and end of the season (see Figure 1.2). Although there has been a great deal of discussion of recent shrinkage of Arctic ice cover, the length of the actual shipping season for coastal shipping has changed only modestly, with some recent earlier arrivals in late June, but there is great variability in the date of the last sailing in November (see Figure 1.2).

None of the villages possess port infrastr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on contributors
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I The economics of Arctic shipping
• Part II The impact of the advent of the Polar Code
• Part III Arctic shipping and port development
• Conclusion
• Index