Arctic Council Working Group 2025 Polar Maritime Seminar
IMO and Norway's Chairship of the Arctic Council, in cooperation with the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment Working Group of the Arctic Council (PAME), are organizing a Polar Maritime Seminar.
The main topics on the agenda included trends in Arctic and Antarctic vessel activity, voyage planning, the PAME project 'Review of the Polar Operational Limit Assessment Risk Indexing System (POLARIS)', search and rescue, training of seafarers for polar operations, and fishing vessel safety. Also on the agenda were important topics concerning pollution prevention, preparedness and response including, measure to reduce underwater radiated noise from shipping, the behaviour of low sulphur fuels in cold water conditions, black carbon from ships, plastics pollution, arrangements for port reception facilities, and issues surrounding invasive species.
Please find more information in Circular Letter No.4934/Rev.1 of 24 December 2024.
The seminar builds on the success of the previous seminar in 2022, when IMO and The Nautical Institute convened a Polar Maritime Seminar working closely with Arctic States and Antarctic States, together with other interested parties, with a particular focus on International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code), as well as fishing vessel safety.
Agenda
Please find the final agenda here.
PRESENTATIONS
Opening and welcome
- IMO Representative: Ms. Heike Deggim, Director of Marine Environment Division
- Arctic Council/Norway Chairship Representative: Ms. Siv Christin Gaalaas (Norway)
Session 1: Trends in Arctic and Antarctic vessel activity
- Trends in Arctic shipping: Prof. Jackie Dawson, University of Ottawa
- Trends in Antarctic shipping: Mr. Rob Hindley, Head of Consultancy & Technology Development, Aker Arctic
- Arctic Ship Traffic Data (ASTD): Mr. Hjalti Hreinsson, Project Manager, PAME Secretariat & Mr. Jon Arve Røyset, Senior Advisor, Norwegian Coastal Administration
Session 2: Voyage planning
- Cruise Line industry perspective: Ms. Lisa Kelley, Interim Executive Director; Director of Operations & Government Affairs, International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO)
- Case study: Planning for Arctic voyages: Capt. Taigh MacManus, Polar Expedition Vessel MY Legend
- The role of satellites in voyage planning: current and future information products to support polar shipping: Dr. Zaynab Guerraou, European Space Agency
Session 3: POLARIS Review Panel
Panel participants:
- Moderator: Mr. Michael Kingston, IMO Consultant
- Ms. Ivana Kubat, Director, Research and Development for National Research Council Canada
- Mr. Rob Hindley, Head of Consultancy & Technology Development, Aker Arctic
- Mr. Drummond Fraser, Senior Policy Advisor, Transport Canada
- Mr. James Bond, Director, Polar Research and Ice Class Ships, American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)
- Mr. Morten Mejlænder-Larsen, Director - Arctic Operation and Technology, DNV
Session 4: Search and Rescue
- Search and rescue in the Antarctic: Commander Pablo Carrasco, MRCC of Chilean Navy
- Lessons learned from the Northguider grounding: Mr. Andreas Brachel, Vice President, Head of Claims Sustainability, GARD
- PAME Project: Potential places of refuge in the Arctic for ships in need of assistance
Session 5: Polar Waters Training
- Developing the Polar Code for training/IMO Training Programme: Mr. Milton Baron‐Perico, Technical Officer, Maritime Safety Division, IMO
- General competency enhancement for seafarers operating in polar waters: Ms. Irene Mortveit Ellingsen, Senior Engineer, Norwegian Maritime Authority
- Training for Antarctic navigation: Capt. David Marionneau, Director, Marine Operations Ponant, Asia/Pacific
- Training for Arctic navigation: Capt. Anthony Patterson, Managing Director, Virtual Marine
- Filling the Gap: Competence Assurance in Ice Navigation: Capt. John Lloyd, CEO, The Nautical Institute
Session 6: Underwater radiated noise
- IMO guidelines & regulatory developments: Mr. Ricardo Batista, Maritime Safety Division, IMO
- GloNoise Partnership Project: Ms. Sevtap Özdoğan, Project Manager of the GloNoise Partnership Project, IMO
- Work of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC): Ms. Lisa Koperqualuk, President, ICC Canada
- PAME project: Underwater noise in the Arctic: understanding impacts and defining management solutions: Dr. Melanie Lancaster, Senior specialist, Arctic species, WWF Global Arctic Programme
Session 7: Pollution prevention measures
- Low-sulphur fuels in the Polar Regions: Mr. Jon-Arve Røyset, Senior Advisor, Norwegian Coastal Administration
- Canada's Arctic Emission Control Area and Black Carbon emissions: Ms. Michelle Sanders, Alternate Permanent Representative of Canada to IMO
- Reducing the impact of shipping's atmospheric emissions on the Arctic: progress and future opportunities: Dr. Sian Prior, Lead Adviser to the Clean Arctic Alliance
- Fisheries as a source of beach litter in the Arctic: causes and solutions: Mr. Wouter-Jan Strietman, Wageningen Economic Research
- PAME Project: Invasive species in the Arctic: Ms. Soffía Guðmundsdóttir, PAME Executive Secretary
- Marine accidents in the Arctic: Dr. Olivier Faury, Associate Professor in Supply Chain Management and Logistics, EM Normandie, Métis Lab
Session 8: Fishing vessel safety / Cape Town Agreement
Cape Town presentation by all participants
Panel participants:
- Moderator: Mr. Michael Kingston, IMO Consultant
- Ms. Heike Deggim, Director, Marine Environment Division, IMO
- Mr. Cagri Kucukyildiz, Maritime Safety Division, IMO
- Mr. Hjalti Hreinsson, Project Manager, PAME Secretariat
- Mr. Jose Casado, Technical Advisor on Maritime Safety and Environment, Directorate General for the Merchant Marine, Spain