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Shipping Passage Through Arctic May Open Sooner Than Expected

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By JAMEY KEATEN, The Associated Press

Published: September 16, 2007

PARIS - Arctic ice has shrunk to the lowest level on record, new satellite images show, raising the possibility that the Northwest Passage that eluded famous explorers will become an open shipping lane.

The European Space Agency said nearly 200 satellite photos this month taken together showed an ice-free passage along northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland, and ice retreating to its lowest level since such images were first taken in 1978.

The waters are exposing unexplored resources, and vessels could trim thousands of miles from Europe to Asia by bypassing the Panama Canal. The seasonal ebb and flow of ice levels has opened up a slim summer window for ships.

Leif Toudal Pedersen, of the Danish National Space Center, said that Arctic ice has shrunk to about 1 million square miles. The previous low was 1.5 million square miles in 2005.

'The strong reduction in just one year certainly raises flags that the ice in summer may disappear much sooner than expected,' Pedersen said in an ESA statement posted on its Web site Friday.
Pedersen said the extreme retreat this year suggested the passage could fully open sooner than expected - but ESA did not say when that might be.

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