Conserving the Arctic Biosphere

"That is one area [Lancaster Sound, Northwest Passage] that has the potential for high conflict. It's an obligatory pathway for both vessels that are going in and out of the passage as well as marine mammals that are migratory."
"There's been a lot of research to suggest that vessels may have impacts on marine mammals."
"We're at this precipice where vessels are poised to expand into these regions. The idea behind this study is to provide a comprehensive assessment to help plan for the future." 
"These obligatory pinch points [narrow passageways where ships and animals are most likely to intersect; the Bering Strait separating the U.S. and Russia, and Lancaster Sound in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut] are used by migratory species to get in and out of the Arctic, but they are also necessary passageways for vessels using these sea routes."
"Identifying the relative risks in Arctic regions and among marine mammals can be helpful when establishing strategies to deal with potential effects."

Donna Hauser, marine scientist, University of Alaska

A unique Arctic species, already affected by climate change, could soon be facing another challenge, greatly increased Arctic shipping. ( Paul Nicklen-WWF)

"Narwhals have all the traits that make them vulnerable to vessel disturbances -- they stick to really specific areas, they're pretty inflexible in where they spend the summer, they live in only about a quarter of the Arctic, and they're smack dab in the middle of shipping routes."
"They also rely on sound, and are notoriously skittish and sensitive to any kind of disturbance."
"I think we can learn a lot from areas that have already been thinking about these kinds of conflicts between ships and marine mammal populations -- for example the North Atlantic right whale, or fin and blue whales around California."
"We could aim to develop some mitigation strategies in the Arctic that help ships avoid key habitats, adjust their timing taking into account the migration of animals, make efforts to minimize sound disturbance, or in general help ships detect and deviate from [proximity with] animals."
Kristin Laidre, polar scientist, UW Applied Physics Laboratory's Polar Science Center, study co-author

A freighter in Navy Board Inlet near Lancaster Sound, Nunavut. CNW Group/WWF-Canada

Tens of thousands of bowhead, beluga and narwhal migrate through Lancaster Sound as well as along a part of the central Arctic coast of Russia; both considered to be vulnerable areas for regional wildlife. Although polar bears and seals are both accounted for in the region in great numbers, it is not they who face risks but other Arctic animals more vulnerable to certain harm due to increased, and the expectations of greater increases in sea traffic by ships.

Even though shipping through the passage remains as yet relatively sparse (China is looking to the Arctic to expedite and reduce costs for its vast enterprise of shipping Chinese-made products world-wide) because of the diminishing presence of sea ice responding to climate change and a warming environment in the Arctic, expectations are that each decade will see an approximately 13 percent change both in prevalent ice cover and the ongoing access of the passage to shipping traffic.

The presence of ships influence whales to alter swimming speed or dive rate. That combination of change for vulnerable sea animals can have the effect of driving them out of the territory or cause them to remain in fraught areas where sea ice can rapidly coalesce, freezing the mammals in place. These are also, as it happens, animals on which Arctic Inuit -- whose heritage culture includes hunting of the mammals -- depend upon as a vital food source.

Lancaster Sound, at the entrance to Canada’s Northwest Passage, is slated to become the country’s fifth national marine conservation area. Inuit hunters, integral to the protection efforts, rely upon the area’s concentration of marine mammals to sustain their traditional way of life.    © Richard Olsenius/Getty Images

It was only a matter of time before travel through the Arctic Ocean became a target in shortening shipping routes with the discovery of the thinning of the Arctic ice fields. The Russian route appears to present the most potential for commercial ships. The Northern Sea Route hosted over 200 ships from 2011 to 2016, all large vessels. Over 100 vessels passed through the Northwest Passage in that same time frame, more than half of which were small, private vessels such as personal yachts.

Apart from purely commercial shipping on the increase, it also won't be long before passage through the Arctic waters that have for so long been closed to any possibility of marine shipping, will open for tourism entrepreneurship. No better time than the present before all the activities for various purposes become commonplace, impacting on marine life, to set rules and boundaries. And to adequately do that, acquiring reliable wildlife data of the region is a necessity.

Enter Dr. Hauser's and her colleagues' paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We know from more temperate regions that vessels and whales don't always mix well, and yet vessels are poised to expand into this sensitive region. Even going right over the North Pole may be passable within a matter of decades. It raises questions of how to allow economic development while also protecting Arctic marine species." The study represents the first comprehensive survey of the population of vulnerable Arctic marine mammals' exposure to shipping along two main routes to estimate which of the routes and which mammals face the greatest risks from heavier regional traffic.

The researchers examined 80 different populations of narwhals, belugas, bowhead whales, seals, walrus and polar bears making the North their home, the goal being to judge just how vulnerable they would be in the presence of large ships transiting through the territory. The study focused on how habitat could intersect with likely sea routes in the target month of September when ice has its least presence and shipping would be increased as a result.

It is imperative that authorities get this just right; gauging the study results and the concomitant recommendations of the researchers for the purpose of addressing potential harm to Arctic wildlife so dependent on the area they migrate through, to provide the food they require for survival on their traditional migration route. In the best of all possible worlds, commercial shipping could be accommodated with certain restrictions meant to ensure the vital interests of protection of ocean biodiversity.

In this July 21, 2017 file photo a polar bear walks over sea ice floating in the Victoria Strait in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. New research suggests that increased shipping is likely to make parts of the Northwest Passage among the most dangerous places in the Arctic for the whales and other mammals that live there. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/David Goldman