Ship Traffic in the Svalbard Area and Safety Issues
Intensity of marine transport in the Arctic is rather low; but it has clear tendency for increasing. At the same time, consequences of marine accidents can be significant for vulnerable environment and for human beings in harsh Нigh North conditions. Ship traffic in the Svalbard area is uniquely large for such high latitude. There are no other places in the world where cruise liners with almost 4000 tourists on board run up to 80⁰N. There are vessels of 4 main groups in the Svalbard area: tourist, cargo, research and fishing vessels. Naturally the first prevails in number of people on board, and the last dominates by number of vessels. Ship traffic has great seasonal variation for all groups. For example, the number of fishing vessel s changes from 10-20 in January-May to 30-40 in June-August, and again to 50-60 vessels in September-December. 1-2 research vessels operate year round, and 5-8 vessels come from July-September. Located in the heart of the Arctic, Longyearbyen ( the main Svalbard town) plays a key role in safety preparedness for the whole Atlantic Arctic. The main challenges for navigation here are logistics and large distances, sea ice, and inadequate charts. The main challenges for search and rescue (SAR) in addition are remoteness, lack of human resources and hypothermia. Fortunately, there were not so many ship accidents in the area (2-3 per year), and of these, groundings dominate. Being captured by ice is specific to Svalbard. Among large accidents are the cruise liners Maxim Gorkiy (holed by ice at 60 NM west of Svalbard, 1989) and the Heanseatic (grounded in Murchinsonfjorden, 1997), when 575 and 145 passengers (respectively) and large part of the crews had been safely evacuated and ships were recovered. Analysis of ship traffic patterns, previous accidents and SAR features is given in the article.
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/03766756
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Supplemental Notes:
- Abstract reprinted with permission of the International Conference on Port and Ocean Engineering Under Arctic Conditions (POAC).
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Authors:
- Marchenko, Nataliya A
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Conference:
- 23rd International Conference on Port and Ocean Engineering under Arctic Conditions (POAC '15)
- Location: Trondheim , Norway
- Date: 2015-6-14 to 2015-6-18
- Publication Date: 2015
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 11p
- Monograph Title: POAC '15: Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Port and Ocean Engineering under Arctic Conditions
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Serial:
- Proceedings of the International Conference on Port and Ocean Engineering Under Arctic Conditions
- Publisher: Port and Ocean Engineering under Arctic Conditions (POAC)
- ISSN: 0376-6756
- EISSN: 2077-7841
- Serial URL: http://www.poac.com/PapersOnline.html
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Cruise ships; Groundings (Maritime crashes); Maritime safety; Nautical charts; Sea ice; Search and rescue operations; Shipping; Vessel operations; Water transportation crashes
- Geographic Terms: Svalbard (Norway)
- Subject Areas: Marine Transportation; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01619318
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Dec 21 2016 11:31AM