Two German Cargo Ships Pass Through 'Arctic Passage'

2 German Cargo Ships Pass Through 'Arctic Passage'

~ Two German merchant ships have traversed the fabled North-East Passage after global warming and melting ice opened a route from South Korea along Russia's Arctic coast to Siberia ~

Now the ships are poised to complete their journey through the cold waters where icebergs abound, heading for Rotterdam in the Netherlands with 3,500 tons of cargo.

The merchant ships MV Beluga Fraternity and MV Beluga Foresight arrived last week in Siberia, their owner Beluga Shipping GmbH said Friday. They traveled from South Korea, in late July to Siberia by way of the North-East Passage, a sea lane that, in years past, was avoided because of its heavy ice floes.

Scientists report that the Arctic Ocean ice cap has been shrinking to unprecedented levels in recent summers opening up many passages that were ice-choked in earlier times.

In July, new NASA satellite measurements showed that sea ice in the Arctic was not just shrinking in area, but thinning dramatically.

Niels Stolberg, the president of Beluga, called it the first time a Western shipping company successfully transited the North-East Passage.

He said the shipping company was planning more voyages through the area in coming months. Traditionally, shippers traveling from Asia to Europe have to go through the Gulf of Aden and through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea and, pending their destination, into the Atlantic Ocean.

A journey from South Korean to the Netherlands, for example, is about 11,000 nautical miles (12,658 miles). By going northward and using the Northeast Passage, approximately 3,000 nautical miles (3,452 miles) and 10 days can be shaved off. That means lower fuel costs

"We are seeing an expression of climate change here," said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in USA. "The Arctic is becoming a blue ocean," Serreze told AP.


for complete article:
AP/Nanet Poulsen
2009-09-15
http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2096