Coast Guard's Arctic agenda heats up.

• Author: Hollander, Zaz
• Position: MILITARY

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As Arctic ice melts, the US Coast Guard is in the midst of a sweeping mission to study and safeguard the increasingly busy marine domain off Alaska.

The effects of climate change mean the Arctic is a whole new ocean, opening up while the world watches. The fabled Northwest Passage has become real. Scores of vessels--cruise ships, cargo vessels, fishing boats--now navigate once-impassable waters via the Northern Sea Route that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Arctic countries like the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark, and Norway are vying for claim on potential oil and gas, diamonds, or rare earth elements. Other global resource powers--China, Japan, India--are paying close attention.

The entire Arctic--not just that within the United States--is thought to hold 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil, 30 percent of its undiscovered natural gas, and a tremendous amount of minerals.

Charged with protecting the environment and safety of US waters, the Coast Guard this summer is stationing two icebreakers, three cutters, and a helicopter along the Alaska's Arctic edge.

"The reality of the matter is in September 2012 we observed the lowest sea ice extent in recorded history," says Captain Jonathan Spaner, who is implementing Arctic strategy as the Coast Guard's Washington, De, director of emerging policy.

The extent of ice dropped by 40 percent compared to the most recent record low of 2007, Spaner says.

"The trend line is clearly down--there's less ice over time. When you have open water, it's a very significant region," Spaner says. "It's economically strategic, it's politically strategic. When you have access to resources, recreation, transport, shipment, there's going to be more activity."

Eyes on the Bering

Alaska has more than a thousand miles of coastline above the Arctic Circle on the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The Coast Guard has jurisdiction over more than two hundred thousand square miles of Arctic water along the North Slope alone.

This summer marks the second of a ten-year strategy to ramp up Coast Guard presence in the Arctic Ocean, a mobile operation known as Arctic Shield.

This year's Arctic Shield will focus more to the northwest and the Bering Strait. The strait is a choke point for traffic moving through the Northern Sea Route, and there's still plenty of traffic there, according to James Robinson, the Juneau-based Arctic coordinator for the Coast Guard's District 17.

The past four years has seen traffic through the Bering Strait increase by a multiple of ten. The Northern Sea Route saw just a handful of transits in 2010. But nearly thirty vessels traveled the route in 2011. Last year, the number was close to fifty.

Ships carried a million tons of cargo...