While the number of ice free days during the summer may be increasing, the Northwest Passage remains mainly an attractive destination rather than a reliable commercial shipping route, says Tom Paterson, Senior Vice-President of Shipping, Arctic and Projects for the Montreal-based shipping line Fednav. That's because the Canadian Arctic still freezes solid during the winter and poses a navigational challenge for ships for much of the rest of the year, he said in an interview. Even when the ice melts, dense fog, the threat of icebergs and the incomplete surveying of the main shipping routes means ships need to proceed with caution. While Fednav demonstrated in 2014 that the NWP can be used to deliver a cargo to Asia, the need for caution and slow sailing means the route won't make money consistently, he said. In the end it isn't quicker for ships coming from the East Coast of Canada or the United States to take that route versus the Panama Canal, he said. The distance may be comparable but “shipping is about speed and time and that usually rules out the Northwest Passage.” Companies have to factor in the extra insurance costs, the uncertainty of navigating in the Arctic, the distance from help if something goes wrong and the cost of repairs to a ship damaged in the North. While the NWP between Alaska and Greenland actually involves three different routes through the Canadian Archipelago, it holds an almost mythical attraction as an alternate to the Panama Canal. That interest has grown after years of reports about shrinking ice coverage due to climate change. In its latest report on Arctic temperatures and ice, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the sea ice there is melting at the fastest pace in 1,500 years because of rising temperatures in the Arctic Ocean. While 2017 wasn't quite as warm as 2016, the record hot year, the Arctic is still heating up twice as fast as elsewhere because of climate change, NOAA said. The extent of the ice melt this past summer was the eighth largest since recording began in 1979. However NOAA said the Arctic winter sea ice maximum levels in 2017 were the smallest recorded and that it was the third straight year of record low winter sea ice recovery. About 79 per cent of the Arctic sea ice is thin and only a year old. In 1985, 45 per cent of the sea ice in the Arctic was thick, older ice. While Paterson doesn't dispute the change in the ice conditions, there's the full year that shipowners need to take into account. “It still becomes bitterly cold up there in the winter and there's lots of ice.” The ice free period runs from early August to mid-October and the increase in the number of open water days amounts to about two and half weeks a year. “That doesn't really add a lot of shipping time. You still have to sail slowly through the Northwest Passage and off Greenland.” Fednav has been working in the Canadian Arctic for 60 years and its specialized icebreaker freighters transport more than two million tonnes of ore annually from remote Arctic mines. “There will be more mines in the future; because of the location they take a long time to plan and bring into operation.” In 1998, Fednav became the first company to provide year-round shipping, without the aid of Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers, with the first winter voyage from Deception Bay in Nunavut. Among its diverse fleet of close to 100 owned and chartered vessels transporting bulk as well as breakbulk cargoes worldwide, Fednav owns and operates the 28,400-tonne MV Arctic, an oil-bulk-ore ice-breaking vessel and the 31,500 tonne MV Umiak I and MV Nunavik, the most powerful ice-breaking bulk carriers in the world. These vessels operate on their own in the North. In September 2014, Nunavik was the first commercial vessel to completely transit the Northwest Passage without an icebreaker carrying a load of ore to Asia from Labrador. In 2016, Fednav's subsidiary Enfotec received an international award for IceNav, its shipboard navigation system. It's a computer-based navigation system connected to a vessel's communication network to assist vessels operating in ice. The information processed by IceNav's software simplifies functions such as route planning, target tracking, and ice-drift calculation, while its hardware module interfaces with a ship's radar, providing a highly enhanced image that allows for exceptional ice detection. Vessels equipped with the system are better able to identify openings in the ice cover and forecast ice movement, leading to more efficient navigation, thereby reducing sail time, fuel consumption, and potential risk of ice damage to the vessel. Paterson talks with passion about Fednav's goal of navigating safely in the Arctic. “It is a pristine environment and we are committed to protecting that. So are the companies mining in the region.” The company's environmental policy commits it to conducting “business in a thoughtful, responsible way, with a view to preventing pollution and safeguarding our natural environment.” It's a big supporter of the Green Marine movement. A decade ago, the then Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard said shipowners interested in using Arctic routes to travel between Europe and Asia should consider Russia's Northeast Passage, which is easier to navigate and better equipped with navigation aids than the Canadian Arctic. Not much has changed. Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.