| Summary: | The following note is a brief summary of the previous status and developments on shipping activities in Arctic waters. We invite all countries to provide additional information on this topic during the workshop in Reykjavik. Background Shipping activities pose greater risk for accidents in the Arctic than further south, because of the extreme conditions with ice, darkness and fog. The same climatic conditions also complicate the rescue and clean-up work and thus increase risks of environmental impacts as a consequence of shipping accidents. Significant environmental impacts are only likely to result from large, concentrated accidental releases of oil. However, chronic oil discharges could have a negative impact on sensitive wildlife habitat or hunting areas used by indigenous communities. Dumping of waste at sea is also one of the issues of concern with respect to chronic pollution in arctic waters (PAME 1996). With respect to navigation seasons, the ACIA will show that longer seasons and greater access will occur around the entire periphery of the Arctic Ocean basin in the future. 1
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