Arctic Shipping

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https://arcticcouncil.dspace7.dspace-express.com/handle/11374/53
The Arctic is undergoing extraordinary transformations early in the 21st century. Natural resource development, governance challenges, climate change and marine infrastructure issues are influencing current and future marine uses of the Arctic. The Arctic Council, recognizing these critical changes and issues, at the November 2004 Ministerial meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, called for the Council’s Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME) working group to “conduct a comprehensive Arctic marine shipping assessment as outlined under the Arctic Marine Strategic Plan (AMSP) under the guidance of Canada, Finland and the United States as lead countries and in collaboration with the Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR) working group and the Permanent Participants as relevant.” The Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment, or The AMSA 2009 Report, is the product of that Arctic Ministerial decision in Reykjavik and was approved at the 2009 Ministerial meeting in Tromsø.

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Recent Submissions

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    Underwater noise in the Arctic - Understanding impacts and defining management solutions
    (2025)
    Underwater noise from shipping is recognised as a serious environmental problem that has impacts on Arctic species, ecosystems and ecosystem services. The goal of this report is to improve understanding of underwater noise and identify possible actions that may help address this issue in the Arctic by assessing contributions of underwater noise from shipping under various economic and environmental scenarios. This report explores current and future Arctic shipping and associated underwater noise at two timepoints: 2019 to represent the present and 2030, to present the near future based on a modelled shipping scenario reflecting growth in shipping sectors. The report focuses across the whole Arctic Ocean, as well as three sub-regions where there is a high overlap of ship traffic with habitats of noise-sensitive species (whales and other marine mammals). It also evaluates noise implications of several ship traffic management measures and presents the results of these in each sub-region.
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    2025 Polar Maritime Seminar - Summary Report
    (2025)
    IMO and Norway's Chairship of the Arctic Council, in cooperation with the Arctic Council’s Working Group on the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment, organized the 2025 Polar Maritime Seminar. Over 250 Registrants with 200 participants representing nearly 100 different entities and organizations gathered at IMO Headquarters in London for two days of discussion on a wide range of topics related to maritime activity in the Arctic and Antarctic. This is a summary report, highlighting the panels, discussions, with the agenda, list of participants and more information.
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    Cape Town Agreement - 2025 Status Report
    (2025)
    In 2021 PAME's ’Raising awareness in the Arctic Council of the provisions of the 2012 Cape Town Agreement Project’ (PAME CTA Project) was developed in order to assist with worldwide efforts, led by the IMO Secretariat, to achieve the entry into force criteria of the CTA, recognizing the importance of its benefits to the Arctic, given fishing vessel activity trends in the region, as well as its importance on a global basis. This Status Reports reviews progress to date on this PAME project, co-led by Iceland, Spain and IMO.
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    Low Sulphur Fuels in the Arctic
    (2025-05-12) Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME); Emergency Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (EPPR)
    The EPPR/PAME project “Low Sulphur Fuels - Fate and Behaviour in Cold Water Conditions” was approved in 2019 and completed in 2025. The primary goal with the project was to address knowledge gaps regarding the use of low-sulphur fuels in the Arctic and assess the environmental impact of potential spills. The results from this project highlight the importance of detailed fuel characterization and expertise in determining optimal spill response strategies. The properties of these fuel oils, and their behavior on cold water surface, present significant challenges for oil spill response and cleanup operations in Arctic waters.
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    ASTD User Guide
    (2023) Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME)
    This document has been created to help current and future users of the ASTD System.