Generally, the sayings displayed on bumper stickers and t-shirts don’t make my radar screen, but there’s one that really pushes my button: “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Nowhere is the truth of this statement demonstrated more forcefully than in the area of marine activity in the polar seas.
As I write this, the 2011 Arctic Technology Conference (ATC) is wrapping up in Houston, Texas, and the range and depth of the educational sessions at the event look pretty impressive. One of the presenters, the University of Alaska’s Lawson Brigham, spoke at Monday’s opening breakfast about the Arctic Council’s Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (AMSA), and he told me, “There are a lot of people here, including a fair number of SNAME members, and I think there are a lot of good sessions here.” He shared with ATC attendees the results of the AMSA study, one of the themes of which is enhancing arctic marine safety.
Central to any discussion of marine safety in polar climates is the need for well-trained and experienced ice navigators. Lawson mentioned to me that he’d be seeing Victor Santos-Pedro later in the day at ATC; in addition to serving as director of design, equipment, and boating safety at Transport Canada, Victor is a featured contributor in the January issue of (mt) magazine. In his feature article, “Toward a Polar Code,” he wrote,” A mandatory Polar Code needs to include a requirement for qualified ice navigators onboard vessels; both those of polar class and others that may operate in open-water or light-ice conditions. It is expected that IMO’s STCW Convention will address navigator training and competency elements, with the code providing the basic model for qualification and training…”
Victor digs down into the development and challenges encountered on the road to what may become a mandatory code in 2012. Read more about it at www.sname.org/SNAME/mt/Home/Default.aspx (click on “Digital Issues” and then log in as a SNAME member).
The January (mt) also offers insight into the specific kinds of training required for ice navigation proficiency, as well as how the demands of this type of competency are evolving. In “Training and Experience,” authors Aleksandr Iyerusalimskiy (ConocoPhillips), and Steven Sawhill (DNV SeaSkill) write that “The tradition of teaching arctic ice navigation has to some extent been lost during the last two decades. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the number of ships operating in the Arctic started to decline. The weak demand resulted in the loss of basically a whole generation of arctic mariners. This gap is being felt today, as the ice navigator supply-demand situation is changing rapidly.”
The development of the Polar Code has shown that it will encompass a range of issues having to do with sustainable development, protection of the environment, and safety. But this ongoing need for educating and equipping competent ice navigators will only increase as activity in the polar regions grows in size and complexity. Lawson Brigham believes that mandatory is the only way to go. “I’m going to write a piece for the Wall Street Journal or maybe some other mainstream media outlet, on the need for the mandatory polar code. Voluntary guidelines don’t cut it in today’s environment.”