Crossing the Line: How the Increase in Shipping Traffic Threatens the Bering Strait

Today the Arctic is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Driven by climate change, this transformation promotes and accelerates industrial development in a fragile and vulnerable environment. As the Arctic sea ice is melting, northern shipping routes become navigable, providing easier access to the region’s vast hydrocarbon and mineral reserves. The expansion of the maritime activity over the Northern Sea Route, the flagship shipping lane of the north, heightens the risks to Arctic ecosystems, including pollution, increasing the likelihood of groundings, collisions, strikes of marine mammals or small watercraft, and spills of oil or other types of contaminants. These threats are especially relevant for the unique biologically productive ecosystems like the Bering Strait. The Bering Strait is the Northern Sea Route’s eastern gate, the narrow waterway separating the Russian Far East and Western Alaska. This paper presents a comprehensive look at the types and volumes of commodities that account for the expansion of maritime shipping activity along Russia’s northern coast and highlights the risk to already climate-imperiled ecosystems, species, and people. This report aims to increase public understanding of the trends in shipping traffic in the Arctic and to raise awareness of the risks that traffic poses. The paper suggests mitigation measures that might help reduce these threats and protect the precious ecosystem.