Taking advantage of melting sea ice, luxury cruise ship sets sail for Northwest Passage
History is being made on Tuesday in Arctic waters, as the largest vessel ever to attempt to transit the famed Northwest Passage is setting sail.
The Crystal Cruises' Serenity, a 1,725-person vessel, is departing Seward, Alaska, for New York City, via the top of the world.
Along its 32-day path, the ship will have to navigate poorly charted waters, chunks of sea ice, sensitive wildlife, and as of Tuesday, a giant storm swirling throughout the Arctic Ocean.
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So far this summer, Arctic sea ice is heading for the second-lowest extent on record, behind 2012, though the storm could further accelerate ice loss.
The voyage is sold out, Paul Garcia, the chief spokesman for the cruise line, told Mashable in March.
“In terms of guest capacity, we would be the most guests to go through the Arctic in one vessel,” Garcia said. He said there is already "strong interest" in the planned 2017 cruise, too.
The Crystal Cruises ship signals the arrival of a new tourism era in a previously pristine and inaccessible region. Until 2007, the Northwest Passage had never been free of sea ice in all of human history.
Search and rescue agencies in the U.S., Canada and Greenland will face challenges from this ship and the large vessels that could follow it in the coming years.
In terms of leisure travel, only small expeditions — such as Quark Expeditions and Polar Cruises — have taken on the Northwest Passage.
To plan for an emergency involving the Serenity or other vessels, the U.S. Coast Guard, Canadian Coast Guard and other agencies conducted emergency exercises in April.
According to a report on Arctic marine shipping published by the Copenhagen Business School, the Canadian Coast Guard has estimated it will have a response time of 11 hours for ocean-going vessels in its Arctic waters, which could be too late to prevent deaths in an incident involving a large cruise ship with so many passengers.
The Arctic has been having an astonishingly mild year compared to average, with early snow melt and rapid sea ice loss seen in much of the Arctic.
As an added safety measure, the Serenity will be accompanied by an escort ship that will have a helicopter on board to look for ice ahead of the ship's course. This ship will also serve as an icebreaker.
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
