Arctic shipping firm does do-it-yourself weather forecasting

A warming climate means there’s a longer shipping season in the eastern Arctic but it could also be responsible for unpredictable weather patterns that are causing delays for sea vessels discharging cargo at port. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Some shipping companies plan to install automated on-board weather stations this year to beef up their weather forecasting capabilities and avoid delays.

These stations will give the fuel transport company, Petro-Nav, an advantage in meeting increased demand for cargo shipping in Nunavik and Baffin Island.

But its ships have still been losing time due to weather delays, Christopher King, the director of operations for Petro-Nav, told a Montreal polar shipping conference March 30.

The shipping season in the eastern Arctic has expanded due to a warming climate and less ice, King said.

“We’re starting at least a week or two earlier than we were 20 years ago,” King said. “We’re in the Hudson Strait area now towards the end of June.”

Winds in Hudson Bay and the tides in Ungava Bay have reached new extremes — and they’re not always easy to predict.

As well, weather forecasting in general is often inaccurate in the Arctic, King said, because data is usually gathered at community airports and not at sea.

That’s why the transport company plans to install Environment Canada’s automated stations on two of its ships this year, to gather meteorological information directly from the marine environment.

Environment Canada has also committed to eight new surface monitoring stations across the Arctic over the next five years, as well as an array of marine and ice buoys and beacons.

But these may not enough to avoid or to deal with a maritime disaster.

“You have to carry your own infrastructure,” King said. “If you can’t sort it out yourself, no one else is going to do it for you. Should there be a [fuel] spill, you’re looking at 48 to 96 hours before support arrives.”

Although Petro-Nav has its own oil spill prevention and response plan, King said he welcomes an increase in ice and weather monitoring by federal agencies, which will make travelling icy sea routes safer and more accessible.

The Canadian Coast Guard’s icebreaking program promises to deliver a new ice-breaker by 2017, which will replace the aging Louis St-Laurent, built in 1969.

Six ice-breakers currently operate in the Arctic from June to November.

“But we’re not talking about a lot of resources for the area we’re covering,” said Fiona Robertson, who works with the Coast Guard’s icebreaking program. “We rely on communication with people who work in the Arctic.”

That, Robertson said, along with new cutting-edge research, will allow for better navigation through ice-covered waters.

The Coast Guard’s ice hazard radar project uses high-speed marine radar to detect old ice from new ice, “because that’s where the hazards are going to be,” Robertson told the shipping summit March 31.

Another research project, called the ice pressure model, now running in St. John’s, Newfoundland, gathers data from daily ice charts, wind and current forecasts to predict the dynamics of ice conditions.

The second polar shipping summit, organized by UK firm Active Communications Inc, ran March 30 and 31.