Navigational Characteristics Dominating Risk Factors and Stressors Number of Accidents Exxon Valdez

1. Ship Accidents in Arctic

2. Content
1. Navigational Characteristics
2. Dominating Risk Factors and Stressors
3. Number of Accidents
4. Exxon Valdez

4. 1.Navigational Characteristics of Arctic
Ocean
Features Svalbard Area Mainland Norway Russian part of Barents
Sea
Navigational Difficulties Limited access to
satellite due to ice sea
Lack of maps
Storms, Icing. “Heavy
traffic” on most common
ship routes and ports
Storms, Icing
Sea ice in South – East
and North
Maritime Activity Fishery, Tourism, Cargo,
Science, Tankers
Fishery, Tourism, Cargo,
Science, Tankers
Fishery, Tourism, Cargo,
Science, Tankers
Shipping seasonal
variation
Operate in most time of a
year with peak in
summer
Stable during the year Operate vigorously in
summer due to Northern
Sea Route activity

5. 2. Dominating Risk Factors and Stressors
Svalbard Area
- Ice, cold weather and darkness
in the winter
- Limited and unstable
radio/satellite communication
- Short time between the winter
and summer
- Climate change (hard to
predict ice condition and
weather)
- Poor preparedness system
Russian part of Barents
Sea
- Impediments to preparedness
system
Distances to harbors, airports and
hospitals, ice conditions
- Icebreaker fleet is important
Mainland Norway
- High probability of getting
accidents due to large intra-regional
traffic
- Abundant resources ( fisheries, oil
& gas resource, tourism) along the
coast

6. 3. Number of accidents
Svalbard Area: 48 ship accidents in the past
15 years, Most of them did not result in
pollutants/ damages
Half of them are occupational accidents
Mainland Norway: 558 accidents so far Most
of the accidents happen in Norwegian coast.

7. Example: Exxon Oil Spill
- Ocurred in Prince William Sound , Alaska in March
24, 1989 .
- One of the biggest environmental tragedies not
only in Arctic but also in history.

8. Major Factor to be highlighted
Hightlights number:
11 million gallons of oil eventually spilled into the water
700 miles of coastline are polluted
100.000 birds and animals were adversely affected by
the environmental disaster.
And a large of money was spent:
$100 million and provide $1 billion over a 10-year period
for the cost of the cleanup.

9. How They Clean up?
Three methods were tried in the effort to clean up the spill:
Burning oil
Mechanical Cleanup( using boom and skimmer)
Chemical Dispersants
=> Neither burning nor the mechanical dispersant was applied the
same day as the spill by helicopter, but because of little
movement by waves, the dispersant was not able to property
interact with the oil was rendered useless, and its use was
dicontinued.

10. Conclusion
1. The difficult of Arctic area:
- Compose a lot of ice, -> difficult for shipping transportation -> difficult to
overcome and control the oil spill. Ice can make it more difficult to find a
spill, reach it and deploy equipment and personnel to respond.
2. Impact to marine life, climate change...
- Arctic is the start point of conveyer belt, where the current throw -> The oil
would be difficult to control. Moreover, it can spread out to a large area
which effects to marine ecosystem.

11. References
Nataliya A. Marchenko1,2, Odd J. Borch3 , Sergey V. Markov4 , Natalia
Andreassen3, “MARITIME ACTIVITY IN THE HIGH NORTH”, The University
Centre in Svalbard, 2013.