A collaborative approach to safe shipping

As sea ice diminishes, global players are eyeing the Arctic for fishing, resource extraction, and faster global trade routes. To prepare for the expected increase in ship traffic, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Tribes, and government agencies in Alaska are teaming up to build a dynamic sea traffic management system, known as Arctic Watch. As ALEXIS WILL writes, this system will help protect the Arctic’s unique ecosystem and the people and wildlife that call it home.

Captain Ed Page describes the need for Arctic Watch like this: To get people to slow down in a school zone, you can post a speed limit, and some people will comply. Add some lights and a flashing sign that displays their speed, and even more people will comply. To guarantee that every single car complies with the speed limit, enrol drivers in a programme that includes police car monitoring.

The Marine Exchange of Alaska (MXAK) is that police car, and Page is its former executive director. The exchange monitors enrolled vessels 24/7 from an operations centre in Juneau, Alaska, with wraparound displays to enhance maritime safety and prevent conflicts in waterway use.

Now, in collaboration with other organizations, including WWF, MXAK is expanding this model of sea traffic management to the Bering Strait, which is both a constricted waterway and biodiversity hotspot.

Protecting Arctic communities

The Arctic is home to people who rely on the health of their ocean to support their families and maintain their cultural, spiritual and physical well-being. In the Bering Strait region, Iñupiaq, Yup’ik and Siberian Yupik have been raising concerns about vessel traffic for more than a decade.

We need to know who is traveling near our island, explains Edwin Noongwook, Arctic Watch Tribal delegate for Savoonga, a town of some 800 people on Sivuqaq/St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. “We harvest to sustain nutrition and life around our environment. These are sentimental values that our families generated from. If something happens, we are the first responders. It’s our fish, our marine mammals, our seabirds that are affected. If something happens, I may not be able to provide for my family.”

Arctic communities are the pillars of Arctic Watch. They are partners in monitoring vessel traffic and provide information to support safe navigation through their waters. In January 2024, Arctic Watch hosted a partners’ meeting during which Tribal delegates saw firsthand the technological capabilities of MXAK and discussed the vision for the system. The resulting recommendations, summarized in a recently published workshop report, outline how building out marine safety sites, increasing VHF coverage, and integrating community protocols will strengthen Arctic Watch and ensure its success.

Safeguarding wildlife

In collaboration with federal and university scientists, Indigenous experts, vessel operators, and the tech team at MXAK, Arctic Watch is now building a suite of voluntary measures tailored to marine wildlife and their behaviours. Based on the idea that slow-down zones reduce whale strikes by vessels, the vision is to issue “wildlife alerts,” or short messages that ships will receive via their automated information systems when they enter wildlife hotspots, such as a migratory corridor, foraging area or walrus haul-out. A message to the effect of “recommended speed 10 knots, whales likely” will pop up.

The project is based on guidelines from both western and Indigenous experts. For example, hunters in Kotzebue Sound have pointed out that beluga whales in the area have changed their movement patterns in response to the higher number of vessels in the area. These experts recommend that vessels at anchor turn off their sonar to reduce the noise impact, so we are working on a corresponding alert. We are also refining this model to accommodate for ship behaviours that might trigger too many alerts (for example, zigzagging in and out of a zone), to avoid sending unnecessary alerts (such as when a ship is not travelling that fast), and to provide ship operators with real-time information.

Creating partnerships to foster communication

At its core, Arctic Watch is an information exchange initiative. Ships need to know where ice is, communities want to know what ships are carrying and where they are going, and emergency response agencies want to know right away if a vessel is encountering difficulties. MXAK is building the necessary communication and technical capabilities for all these needs.

This includes installing new marine safety sites in collaboration with local experts to increase communication coverage and avoid known obstacles to VHF transmission. It also includes developing tools to make the information that is collected more accessible to a broad audience. For example, MXAK has built an online app that integrates environmental and ship data in a publicly available format.

“We need to break down the stovepipes!” explains Captain Steve White, the current executive director of MXAK. “Our job is to centralize information and create a centre of excellence.” Fuelled by his enthusiasm and a “let’s do this together” attitude, the initiative has made significant progress. It is succeeding not just because there is a clear and compelling need for it, but because diverse partners have come together with commitment and purpose to thoughtfully and carefully bring the project closer to realization.

In addition to the organizations already mentioned, others that have contributed significant time and resources include: Kawerak Inc., Ocean Conservancy, Alaska Ocean Observing System, Ikaaġun Engagement, Aleutians Bering Sea Initiative, and the Marine Mammal Commission. As a result, Arctic Watch now has a strong foundation. But we still have key components to develop, such as a governing body and operational guidelines.

The changes happening in the Arctic are profound, and to those of us who live and work here, they are deeply distressing. We cannot bring back the cold winters or galusiq (Mother Ice). But preparing for the changes ahead is one way we can contribute to protecting the Arctic.