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calendar   Thursday - September 10, 2009

Northeast Passage Open, Transited

Uh oh. Looks like that naughty Global Warming is to blame.

First through Northeast Passage
2009-09-09

Simultaneously as climate scientists can see a near record low sea ice in the Arctic, two German merchant vessels are the first ever to make it through the formerly impenetrable Northeast Passage.

The German shipping company’s two vessels have reached their destination of Novy Port in the outlet of the Ob River after they sailed from Ulsan in South Korea in August. End of August and beginning of September is the time of the year with minimum ice along the northern coast of Siberia.

The last updated data from the National Snow and Ice Data Centre shows that the averaged sea ice extent in the Arctic over August 2009 was 6,26 million square kilometres. That is 1,41 million square kilometres below the 1979 to 2000 average.

The two German commercial vessels to be the first to sail the route all the way through the Arctic from east to west are now delivering their cargo, 44 modules with single weight of 200 tons or more, onto barges in the Ob River reports HeavyLift. Then the two ships will sail around the Yamal Peninsula, cross the Barents Sea to Murmansk and head on to Rotterdam with its remaining 3,500 freight tons, writes HeavyLift.

The vessels, belonging to the Beluga Group, are of ice class and this year’s voyage comes after long time planning and a delayed permission to sail the route from Russian authorities. The voyages were first intended to take place last year as reported by BarentsObserver.

Following the climate changes and rapidly decreasing sea ice in the Arctic, there is a growing interest in Arctic Shipping.


image

The MV Beluga Foresight


Ok, so two ships got through. Was it clear sailing all the way? Heck no - they had ice breakers clearing a path for them. Isn’t that sort of cheating?

>Mission accomplished – world premiere successful: Both multipurpose heavy lift project carriers MV “Beluga Fraternity” and MV “Beluga Foresight” have reached their destination in Siberia safely. On Monday, 7th of September 2009, within a few hours time the vessels which are loaded with heavy plant modules each dropped their anchors at Novyy Port / Yamburg in the delta of river Ob. Hence, Bremen-based project and heavy lift carrier Beluga Shipping GmbH has succeeded in sending two merchant vessels through the formerly impenetrable Northeast-Passage from Asia to Europe for the first time. MV “Beluga Fraternity” had cast off on 23rd of July, sister vessel MV “Beluga Foresight” five days later from Ulsan, South Korea, to enter the so called Northern Sea Route via the inspection point at Vladivostok in order to deliver their project cargo as far into the destination area as no other merchant vessel had previously been able to. Now, the in total 44 cargo modules with single weights of 200 tons and above are discharged offshore onto barges by the on-board crane gear and then will be transported further to Surgut. Subsequent to this operation both vessels via Murmansk are going to sail to Central Europe to safely deliver the remaining 3,500 freight tons of construction parts packed in wooden boxes each to Rotterdam.

“We are all very proud and delighted to be the first western shipping company which has successfully transited the legendary Northeast-Passage and delivered the sensitive cargo safely through this extraordinarily demanding sea area”, Niels Stolberg said, President and CEO of Beluga Shipping GmbH, after the masters Captain Aleksander Antonov and Captain Valeriy Durov had stated the droppings of the anchor at the port of destination. “To transit the Northeast-Passage so well and professionally without incidents on the premiere is the result of our extremely accurate preparation as well as the outstanding team work between our attentive captains, our reliable meteorologists and our engaged crew”, said Stolberg.

During the passed days which led through the East Siberian Sea, the Sannikov Strait and the Vilkizki Strait as northernmost part the Beluga vessels followed in a little convoy behind Russian Atomflot-ice breakers “50 let Pobedy” and “Rossia”. Small ice bergs, ice fields and ice blocks were safely passed nautically. After the successful premiere, Beluga Shipping announced further project journeys through the Northeast-Passage for 2010 – then probably with the new Super Heavy Lift vessels of the Beluga P-class already, which will be launched as from autumn this year onwards.


image

The MV Beluga Felicity



Both these ships are relatively small, 138 meters long by 21 meters wide. Details on both ships here. The two Russian nuclear powered icebreakers are each 160 meters long and 30 meters wide, much larger than the cargo ships. The first ship in this class, the Arktika broke ice all the way to the North Pole, back in 1977, when we all still believed in Global Cooling. So far it is the only surface ship to ever sail (crunch?) it’s way to the Pole.

Novy Port on the Ob River is about halfway across Russia on the north coast. A bit south and east of that giant peninsula thingy called Novaya Zemlya, about 2/3 the way into the big bay.

So while it is impressive that this has been done, it isn’t that stupendous a deal, nor is it indicative that all the polar bears are gonna die now. It’s a stunt. All it really proves is that Russia’s giant icebreaker ships are still running just fine. But by next week the ice up there will be too thick and growing too fast for another cargo ship to get through.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 09/10/2009 at 09:00 PM   
Filed Under: • AdventureClimate-Weather •  
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