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Mapping more of Northwest Passage question of Canadian sovereignty

ABOARD THE AMUNDSEN ICEBREAKER IN THE FRANKLIN STRAIT - Climate change threatens to create a northern sovereignty problem for Canada as an Arctic access route previously protected by ice becomes open to ships from other countries, researchers warn.

Many lives and ships have been lost over the centuries in the quest for the Northwest Passage, the legendary shortcut connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean in Canada's high Arctic that eluded such famous adventurers as Francis Drake, Martin Frobisher and Henry Hudson.

It was finally navigated in in 1903-06 by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.

But within 50 years, global climate change could turn what is now an infrequently travelled narrow shipping lane through the ice into a widely accessible shipping lane and put Canadian sovereignty over the passage into question, according to a senior Canadian scientist.

André Rochon, chief scientist on board Canada's Amundsen research icebreaker, says climate change warming could make the route almost ice-free, tempting many countries to push for the passage to be declared an international waterway.

Right now, it takes the combined power of the Amundsen's six engines to break the thick ice and travel the passage, but once the ice disappears any ship could travel the route.

"It's an important problem because if sea ice disappears from the Northwest Passage, then it becomes the shortest route between Europe and Asia, and of course, shipping will increase," Rochon says.

The scientist fears this would lead to an increased risk of accidents and pollution and argues that Canada does not have the infrastructure to manage greater ship traffic.

That is why, according to Rochon and other scientists, it is important that Canada learn as much as it can, as quickly as it can, about the frigid region to prepare for the predicted changes.

Jonathan Beaudoin, a computer scientist with the Ocean Mapping Group at the University of New Brunswick, says its is important to get detailed maps of the area.

"The Hydrographic Service has done as much as it can to survey a shipping lane through here [the Northwest Passage] but if you have to go off that lane for any reason there's very little known...so it would be good for us to be surveying up in our arctic backyard," Beaudoin says.

He's using a device called a multi-beam sonar to measure depths and develop a profile of the ocean floor.

But Beaudoin says the mapping group hopes to survey a much wider area in the coming years, in order to put more of the Northwest Passage on the map.

[original article]

Posted by thinkum at August 17, 2004 03:43 PM