Vessels, risks, and rules: Planning for safe shipping in Bering Strait

Commercial vessel traffic through the Bering Strait is increasing. This region has high biological and cultural significance, to which commercial shipping poses several risks. For this environment, these risks include ship strikes of whales, noise disturbance, chronic pollution, and oil spills. Indigenous Chukchi, Inupiaq, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, Siberian Yupik, and Yup’ik peoples may be affected by proximity between small hunting boats and large commercial vessels leading to swamping or collisions, through displacement of animals or impacts to food security from contaminants, and through loss of cultural heritage if archeological sites and other important places are disturbed by wakes or an increase in people spending time on shore. Several measures are available to govern shipping through the region, including shipping lanes, Areas to Be Avoided (ATBAs), speed restrictions, communications measures, reporting systems, emissions controls, oil spill prevention and preparedness and salvage, rescue tug capability, voyage and contingency planning, and improved charting. These measures can be implemented in various ways, unilaterally by the U.S. or Russia, bilaterally, or internationally through the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Regulatory measures can be established as voluntary measures or as mandatory measures. No single measure will address all risks, but the framework presented herein may serve as a means of identifying what needs to be done and evaluating whether the goal of safe shipping has been achieved.

[1]  S. Wasser,et al.  Evidence that ship noise increases stress in right whales , 2012, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[2]  J. Lovvorn,et al.  Modeling marine protected areas for threatened eiders in a climatically changing Bering Sea. , 2009, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[3]  P. E. Nachtigall,et al.  MARINE MAMMAL NOISE-EXPOSURE CRITERIA: INITIAL SCIENTIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS , 2008 .

[4]  S. Bateman,et al.  Compulsory Pilotage in the Torres Strait: Overcoming Unacceptable Risks to a Sensitive Marine Environment , 2009 .

[5]  Falk Huettmann,et al.  Putting models to a good use: a rapid assessment of Arctic seabird biodiversity indicates potential conflicts with shipping lanes and human activity , 2014 .

[6]  S. Senner,et al.  Arctic Bottleneck: Protecting The Bering Strait Region From Increased Vessel Traffic , 2012 .

[7]  C. Condit,et al.  Response of Commercial Ships to a Voluntary Speed Reduction Measure: Are Voluntary Strategies Adequate for Mitigating Ship-Strike Risk? , 2012 .

[8]  H. Huntington,et al.  Traditional Knowledge of the Ecology of Beluga Whales ( Delphinapterus leucas ) in the Eastern Chukchi and Northern Bering Seas, Alaska , 1999 .

[9]  R. Prince,et al.  Weathering of an Arctic oil spill over 20 years: the BIOS experiment revisited. Baffin Island Oil Spill. , 2002, Marine pollution bulletin.

[10]  H. Eicken,et al.  Sea Ice Distribution and Ice Use by Indigenous Walrus Hunters on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska , 2010 .

[11]  Arctic Monitoring,et al.  Identification of Arctic marine areas of heightened ecological and cultural significance: Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (AMSA) IIc , 2013 .

[12]  J. George,et al.  Potential for bowhead whale entanglement in cod and crab pot gear in the Bering Sea , 2014 .

[13]  D. W. Laist.  Impacts of Marine Debris: Entanglement of Marine Life in Marine Debris Including a Comprehensive List of Species with Entanglement and Ingestion Records , 1997 .

[14]  D. W. Laist,et al.  Effectiveness of mandatory vessel speed limits for protecting North Atlantic right whales , 2014 .

[15]  J. Grebmeier,et al.  Shifting patterns of life in the Pacific Arctic and sub-Arctic seas. , 2012, Annual review of marine science.

[16]  C. Peterson,et al.  Long-Term Ecosystem Response to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill , 2003, Science.

[17]  A. Fischbach,et al.  Walrus areas of use in the Chukchi Sea during sparse sea ice cover , 2012 .

[18]  J. George,et al.  Winter Movements of Bowhead Whales ( Balaena mysticetus ) in the Bering Sea , 2012 .

[19]  M. Robards,et al.  Sustaining a healthy human-walrus relationship in a dynamic environment: challenges for comanagement. , 2008, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[20]  A N Popper,et al.  The effects of anthropogenic sources of sound on fishes. , 2009, Journal of fish biology.

[21]  Jeffrey D. Adams,et al.  Distributed under Creative Commons Cc-by 4.0 Compliance with Vessel Speed Restrictions to Protect North Atlantic Right Whales , 2022 .

[22]  J. Grebmeier,et al.  Ecosystem dynamics of the Pacific-influenced Northern Bering and Chukchi Seas in the Amerasian Arctic , 2006 .

[23]  Ivonne Ortiz,et al.  Mapping human interaction with the Bering Sea ecosystem: Comparing seasonal use areas, lifetime use areas, and “calorie-sheds” , 2013 .

[24]  Lily Gadamus.  Linkages between human health and ocean health: a participatory climate change vulnerability assessment for marine mammal harvesters , 2013, International journal of circumpolar health.

[25]  Ian Stirling,et al.  Quantifying the sensitivity of Arctic marine mammals to climate-induced habitat change. , 2008, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[26]  J. Piatt,et al.  Advection, pelagic food webs and the biogeography of seabirds in Beringia , 2003 .

[27]  W. Richardson.  Marine Mammals and Noise , 1995 .

[28]  D. W. Laist,et al.  COLLISIONS BETWEEN SHIPS AND WHALES , 2001 .

[29]  M. Ferguson,et al.  Distribution and Relative Abundance of Marine Mammals in the Alaskan Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, 2011 , 2012 .

[30]  B. Fadely,et al.  Alaska marine mammal stock assessments, 2015 , 2012 .

[31]  Linda S. Weilgart.  A Brief Review of Known Effects of Noise on Marine Mammals , 2007 .

[32]  J. Lovvorn,et al.  The relationship between sea ice break-up, water mass variation, chlorophyll biomass, and sedimentation in the northern Bering Sea , 2012 .

[33]  Michael J. Moore,et al.  Implications of Arctic industrial growth and strategies to mitigate future vessel and fishing gear impacts on bowhead whales , 2012 .

[34]  Yulia V. Ivashchenko,et al.  Alaska marine mammal stock assessments, 2016. , 2011 .

[35]  Nicole M. Braem,et al.  Continuity and change in subsistence harvests in five Bering Sea communities: Akutan, Emmonak, Savoonga, St. Paul, and Togiak , 2013 .

[36]  The development of ships' routeing measures in the Bering Strait: Lessons learned from the North Atlantic right whale to protect local whale populations , 2014 .

[37]  Stefan Garthe,et al.  Effects of ship traffic on seabirds in offshore waters: implications for marine conservation and spatial planning. , 2011, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[38]  P. Stabeno,et al.  Dynamics of the Bering Sea , 1999 .

[39]  J. Pella,et al.  Estimate of oil persisting on the beaches of Prince William Sound 12 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. , 2004, Environmental science & technology.

[40]  Christopher S. Nations,et al.  Effects of airgun sounds on bowhead whale calling rates in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea , 2013 .