Get ready shippers — sealift’s a month early this year

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Mild temperatures across the eastern Arctic have produced ideal conditions for the 1999 sealift, moving sailing schedules for many communities forward by several weeks.

Environment Canada is forecasting early ice break-up throughout Nunavik, the southern Baffin and Keewatin regions, and early-to normal conditions in the High Arctic as shippers prepare to carry out the annual resupply of building materials, non-perishable food and machinery.

“El Nino as you know lasted well into the winter last year, and we’ve had above normal temperatures the whole winter in the eastern Arctic and Hudson Bay,” said Rick Power, a spokesman for the Canadian Ice Service. “So the ice didn’t thicken as much as normal in most areas, and it started to clear a little earlier.

“And of course we’ve had a very mild spring as well.”

Environment Canada’s outlook for ice break-up and clearing patterns, released this week, predicts smooth sailing in much of James Bay, Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait by the first week of July — a month earlier than normal.

Early break-up

Across the Arctic, ice break-up is expected to be three weeks early, on average.

The MV Lady Franklin, operated by Nunavut Ocean Transport Ltd., and the MV Aivik, operated by Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping, are planning their first sailings to the south Baffin on June 25.

Both vessels have already begun receiving cargo in Montreal, and are due to arrive in Iqaluit July 2 — two and a half weeks earlier than last year.

Colin Crosbie, vice-president of Nunavut Ocean Transport, and veteran of the northern sealift, described this year’s ice conditions as unprecedented.

“I have been involved in shipping in the Arctic since 1969 and certainly nobody I’ve talked to who had been up there for decades before had ever seen anything like this,” he said.

“Five years ago, if we had said we were going to Iqaluit June 25 people would say, ‘you’re crazy.'”

Environment Canada is forecasting an open water route to Churchill, Manitoba across Hudson Bay by July 6. Normally, such a route is not open until the end of July.

An open water route to Hall Beach is forecast this year by August 25. Normally, such a route would not be navigable before Sept. 6.

Good for construction

The extended sealift season is a blessing for the booming construction industry in Nunavut.

“This year, Iqaluit is very scarce on materials, so the fact that it’s going to open up early is a positive thing,” Suzanne Paquin, vice-president of Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping said.

Taking full advantage of favourable ice conditions, however, will require the cooperation of customers and suppliers.

“The customers have to bring in their cargo as quickly as possible,” Paquin said. “I think that’s the most importatnt thing. Because we really have to sail according to the cargo we have. Our intention is to go to Iqaluit with a full load, but that may not happen if all the Iqaluit cargo doesn’t come in.”

Sea ice along the Labrador Coast is expected to clear by July 2, and by July 14 in Ungava Bay — about three weeks earlier than normal.

Even in northern Davis Strait, Home Bay, Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound, where ice distribution is projected to be close to normal, the ice itself is thinner as a result of consistently warmer temperatures.

In the High Arctic in particular, the ice service has noted the disappearance of much of the region’s “multi-year ice” — ice that is more than a year old, and which is denser and harder than young ice.

“We had a fairly significant melt back in the old ice last year,” Power said. “There isn’t any old ice except for a trace in a few places and that does affect navigation.”

Ice conditions aren’t the only factor navigators will have to contend with, however. Unpredictable southeast winds could prevent sealift vessels from getting close enough the communitites to unload their cargo.

“We may get fooled in Iqaluit,” Crosbie said. “the ice may break up then we may get onshore winds blowing the ice up onto the beach for a week and we may have to sit and look at it.

“But we’ll be up there anyway.”