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Shipping season getting longer Most supply vessels arriving earlier and leaving later
Myles Dolphin
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 15, 2013
NUNAVUT
The shipping season for Baffin Island communities is being extended due to receding ice, according to Jean-Pierre Lehnert with the Coast Guard in Iqaluit.
The Canadian Coast Guard ship Pierre Radisson, classified as a medium Arctic icebreaker, is among the ships that are making their way North earlier in the season because of warmer conditions. It was 12 km south of Iqaluit on July 11, waiting to escort a fuel tanker into port. - photo courtesy of Canadian Coast Guard |
Lehnert, who has 49 years of experience with the Canadian Coast Guard, said he has noticed a significant difference in how early vessels first start arriving to Iqaluit and how late the shipping season ends.
"It used to be that you would see the first vessels coming in around the first week of July," he said.
"Now you start seeing them around the third week of June. And the fishing vessels can almost make it throughout the winter."
Lehnert said ice conditions are much easier than they used to be. He cited the Northwest Passage sea route as an example of how rapidly climate change is having an impact on Arctic waters.
Last year, two pleasure crafts were the first ones to make it through the passage.
Jacques Collins, an ice service specialist with Environment Canada, said ice is melting much faster than it normally would.
"It is way under normal," he said, referring to ice thickness levels around Baffin Island.
"There should be more ice this time of year. There is still a lot of ice in certain places but the more you go towards Greenland the more open water there is."
Ice levels fluctuate around Baffin Island and because Iqaluit is subject to more wind than other communities, it keeps ice within Frobisher Bay longer, Lehnert said.
As a result, supply vessels are arriving a bit later than scheduled to Iqaluit this year.
Some High Arctic communities such as Grise Fiord, Pond Inlet and Clyde River still have varying amounts of fast ice - ice that is "fastened" to the coast.
"Each section is different but the ice should start to open soon," Collins said.
"But in general there is less ice along the entire Eastern coast."
Marty Kuluguqtuq, assistant senior administrative officer in Grise Fiord, said the ice has just started to break up in his community.
"We're two or three weeks behind what we had, ice-condition wise, last year," he said.
Shipping schedules are still relatively on track despite ice still remaining in certain communities, according to Suzanne Paquin, a representative for NEAS.
"Iqaluit is a bit late now but other than that, everything is normal," she said. She has been in the business since 1987 and when she first started the season was 120 days. Now it is closer to 140 to 150 days.
"Yes, the seasons are longer but they are not predictable by community."
The M/V Mitiq vessel was scheduled to arrive in Iqaluit on July 17 but the schedule on the company's website indicates it hasn't yet sailed from its port of origin in Valleyfield, Que.
The ship is part of the company's first sailing, which will serve mostly Western Arctic communities. The second sailing, scheduled for the beginning of August, will deliver supplies to the central and eastern Arctic while the third sailing delivers to Milne Inlet exclusively.
Paquin said ice conditions aren't necessarily black and white from year to year. She remembers a time when Iqaluit waters were open on June 24.
"Now it's July 11 and they haven't quite opened yet," she said.
"It really depends on the nature of the wind and ice floes."
The shipping season may be extended but schedules aren't on track for all communities.
"Our sealift is already delayed two weeks due to ice conditions in Iqaluit," said Colin Saunders, economic development officer in Pond Inlet.
When asked about what the community does in situations where it is waiting for a sealift to arrive, Saunders answered simply: "Wait."
Studies have indicated that temperatures across the Arctic have risen dramatically in recent decades.
According to a study published in the Jan. 28 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, expanses of ice are smaller than at any other time in the last 1,600 years.
Large ice floes have already broken off the coast in Pond Inlet and Arctic Bay this year, causing dozens of tourists and hunters to be temporarily stranded.
The Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Henry Larsen arrived in Iqaluit on July 3 while the CCGS Pierre Radisson was 12 kilometres south of the city on July 11, waiting to escort the fuel tanker MV Nanny once it is finished unloading. Five or six other icebreakers are scheduled to arrive before the end of the summer.
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