Climate change has made the North-West Passage navigable and Inuit welcome the chance to profit but seek regulations to avoid being overwhelmed by tourism

Authorities in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut are considering new regulations on marine tourism after the first successful voyage of a mammoth luxury liner through the North-West Passage.



Nearly three football fields in length, the 13-deck Crystal Serenity docked in Manhattan last month after a 32-day voyage that saw it become the largest cruise ship to sail the once impenetrable passage. Staffed by more than 600 crew members and at times accompanied by an icebreaker ship and two helicopters, the cruise capitalised on rising temperatures and steadily receding sea ice to navigate the frigid Arctic waters.

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The sold-out voyage left authorities in Canada’s north bracing for a boom in tourism. “Now that marine tourism is a significant and steadily growing presence in the territory,” said Bernie MacIsaac of Nunavut’s department of economic development, “it is important that new legislation be created that will effectively regulate the sector.”

As the Serenity made its way through largely uncharted waters, the cruise’s more than 1,000 passengers – each of whom paid between $22,000 (C$29,000) and $120,000 (C$157,000) – stopped in at several Inuit villages for a glimpse of Arctic life.

The itinerary included Cambridge Bay, population 1,500. Although the hamlet has been a regular stop on the northern cruise ship circuit for more than two decades, the Serenity eclipsed the small cruise vessels that have previously stopped there, said Vicki Aitaok, a local tour operator who coordinated the visit. “We didn’t really know how it would impact us or how we would feel about the day.”

More than two years of planning went into the visit, during which tourists were brought in on Zodiac inflatable boats in groups of 150 so as not to overwhelm residents. The passengers – regaled with drum dancers, throat singers and the creations of local artisans – left more than C$100,000 in the community. “There’s a lot of employment opportunities in the community when the cruise ships come here,” said Aitaok. “All the money stays in the community.”

The visit clearly demonstrated the role the burgeoning Arctic tourism industry can play in the region, said Aitaok – but within limits. The Serenity pulled into the hamlet just a day after another ship had visited, leaving many residents exhausted. “There just aren’t that many people here,” she said. “For us here, because we have such minimal resources, we need at least a day between each ship.”

Most communities in Nunavut have between 500 and 3,000 residents, said the government of Nunavut’s MacIsaac, meaning visits by large cruise ships risk significantly disrupting daily life. “These types of disruptions must be mitigated and one way to do that is through regulations.”

Prospective rules being considered include limiting the number of passengers who can disembark in a community at a time or forcing ships to provide passengers with visitor guidelines.

Authorities are mindful of the need to strike a balance between regulating tourists and ensuring communities can maximise the benefits of mass tourism. “More passengers visiting a community means more carvings, prints and other crafts are purchased, which means a substantially larger economic impact on a community from a single ship visit,” said MacIsaac.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Crystal Serenity with 1,000 passengers on board rides at anchor just outside Nome, Alaska. Photograph: Mark Thiessen/AP

Echoing a conundrum facing tourist destinations around the world, the government is also grappling with how best to ensure that cruise ship visits are worthwhile for the host community, he said. “Several communities have expressed concerns that they are not receiving adequate economic return to warrant the amount of effort involved with cruise ship visits.”

Regulations being mulled include forcing cruise ship operators to report regularly to the government on what their passengers leave behind in each community they visit, he said. “This will allow the government to track the economic impact of ship visits and to shape policy accordingly.”

The tourist boom comes just as Inuit are struggling to contend with the effects of climate change, said Okalik Eegeesiak, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council. “In 2015, about 200,000 people went to the Arctic on cruise ships,” she said.

The Serenity took care to mitigate its environmental impact, burning low-sulphur fuel and maintaining tight controls on the ship’s air, water and rubbish discharges. But the steadily growing industry, if not properly managed, could jeopardise the very ecosystem that is attracting the tourists.

Many Inuit want to see more stringent controls of marine traffic in the Arctic, said Eegeesiak: “We’re all worried about the potential for a disaster that will affect our livelihood, our food sources.”

The risks facing the industry were laid bare in 2010, after a small cruise ship carrying 128 passengers struck an uncharted rock shelf in the North-West Passage. It took 40 hours for a Canadian icebreaker to reach and evacuate the ship’s passengers. The Canadian coast guard later filed a lawsuit seeking almost half a million dollars in damages over pollution, claiming that 13 tanks aboard the ship – holding fuel, freshwater and sludge – were breached during the grounding.

The idea of mass tourism in the Arctic, said Eegeesiak, is woefully out of step with the region’s glaring lack of infrastructure and limited capacity for search and rescue. “Once a disaster happens, it will have happened,” she said. “And is that the only time we’re going to say we should have done it better.”