With Melting Arctic Ice, Ships Prepare to Complete Northern Passage

Aided by thawing sea ice, two German ships are en route to becoming the first commercial vessels to complete the Northern Sea Route through the Arctic from Asia to the West. The ships, which began their voyage in South Korea in July, are scheduled to depart a Siberian port this week for Rotterdam in the Netherlands. “It is global warming that enables us to think about using that route,” a spokeswoman for the shipping company, the Beluga Group, told the New York Times. The ships have been accompanied by Russian icebreakers, but reportedly so far have encountered only scattered ice floes. The Russian government declared the Northern Sea Route, or Northeast Passage, open for international vessels after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but no commercial ships have yet traveled all the way across. The Russians hope that the melting sea ice, combined with economic benefits, will eventually make the Arctic passage a strong competitor to longer southerly routes.