'But that's like saying a car can drive up to 200 mph - just because it can doesn't mean it will.'Ĭombining satellite pictures of ice cover with GPS vessel tracking data the team was able to analyze how the ships have been behaving as the shipping passages change.

'Up until now projections have been about theoretical ships, such as noting certain vessel types can travel through up to 2 meters of ice,' Kapsar said. Whether this traffic occurs only in the open water season, or also in times of ice cover is not.īut the researchers point out the difference between what ships could do as ice changes, and what they will do can be vastly different. Whether its fishing vessels seeking better catches over a longer season, or Russian shipping companies eager for better ways to deliver oil and gas to Chinese customers, increased marine traffic is a given. Understanding when and where ships are entering areas of sea ice can help us to better understand potential impacts of vessel traffic in the region.' 'Sea ice also provides critical habitat for many endemic Arctic species and a hunting platform for Indigenous subsistence hunters. 'Even with climate change, sea ice is still a substantial barrier to Arctic vessel traffic,' said Kelly Kapsar, a research associate at MSU's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS). Scientists at Michigan State University (MSU), University of Waterloo, and University of Alaska Fairbanks report in Climatic Change where vessels are traveling in the ice-covered waters of the Arctic between Alaska and Russia, and what those reports may mean for important wildlife and communities in the region.

How to get boats in fishing planet