Fastest Transit of Northwest Passage Just Completed

July 30, 2017 – Note this date on your calendar because it represents a climate change milestone. The Northwest Passage is now open for commercial shipping to make it from the Pacific to the Atlantic and vice-versa through the what was once a graveyard for Arctic explorers. Where the Franklin Expedition of 1845 met its fate, an icebreaker of Finnish registry, the MSV Nordica, met no challenges from sea ice as it traveled from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Nuuk, Greenland in a mere 24 days, the earliest crossing of the Northwest Passage on record. The total distance equaled 10,000 kilometers (over 6,200 miles). Throughout the passage, the Nordica was unaccompanied. No other ice breakers were nearby, only seabirds and one polar bear.

The Nordica, an 116-meter (380-foot) ship, took on the voyage after completing a charter for ice breaking services off Sakhalin Island in the North Pacific. In looking for a convenient route home to Finland the crew decided to attempt an early crossing of the Northwest Passage. They invited reporters and researchers to come on board with accommodation for up to 47 guests.

Captain David Snider who keeps a blog about traversing Arctic waters writes “voyaging through the Northwest Passage is not for someone on a tight timeline….we are at the mercy of the sea, and the sea ice.”  But it seems that the technology of the 21st century is making the “mercy of the sea” less daunting these days, far different from the time of Franklin. Today navigators have raw satellite images, high-resolution synthetic aperture radar, thermosensitive imagery, global positioning systems, and on board telecommunications.

The Nordica also features the ENFOTEC IceNav(TM) software system providing:

• multi-layer maps displaying the latest satellite imagery along with ice radar detection
• ice drift calculations, thickness and concentration charting
• up to date meteorological data from the Canadian Ice Service
• ship tracking and radar data logging for playback and analysis
• and a timeline and route planning tool

The Nordica’s traverse of the passage was from west to east. Another ship, the MV Polar Prince, a 67-meter (220 foot) icebreaker, since June 1, 2017, is making the journey from east to west, but it is taking 150 days for the voyage in celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday. Dubbed the Canada C3 expedition, the ship is currently on the 7th leg of the journey near Iqaluit, the capital of the Nunavut territory in Canada. Upon completion, the Polar Prince will have traveled 23,000 kilometers (almost 14,300 miles) starting in Toronto, Ontario and ending in Victoria, British Columbia.

Last year I wrote about the Crystal Serenity, a luxury cruise ship that traversed the passage in August in 32 days traveling from Seward, Alaska, to New York City. The ship required an icebreaker escort. The voyage, however, demonstrated how much the Arctic is changing opening the passage to marine traffic. The Nordica’s 24-day crossing at such an early date is a further illustration of the impact global warming is having on the Arctic Ocean. The normal period of low sea ice occurs in late August and September. But apparently not anymore.

The Nordica’s 24-day crossing (see the map of its route below) and its earliness further illustrates how global warming is changing the Arctic Ocean. Where the normal period of low sea ice has always occurred in late August and September, today it appears that is not the case.