Arctic ports and the shipping boom they aren’t ready for

This is part of an ongoing series exploring Arctic infrastructure — from ports and airports to fiber optic cables and spaceports. Drawing on an interactive StoryMap published by the Arctic Economic Council (AEC), each installment examines a different layer of the infrastructure that connects and shapes life in the high north. With only about four million people across the region and climate change redrawing the map in real time, the Arctic faces a rare combination of urgent need and wide-open possibility.

Arctic shipping is growing fast. Between 2013 and 2023, the number of unique ships entering the Arctic Polar Code area rose 37% — roughly 500 additional vessels. The total distance sailed by those ships more than doubled in the same period, jumping from 6.1 million to 12.9 million nautical miles. September, when sea ice is at its lowest, is the busiest month: 1,122 ships entered the Polar Code area in September 2023 alone.

The infrastructure on shore has not kept up. According to the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s World Port Index, there are around 350 ports on Arctic Ocean coastlines. The PAME Arctic Ship Traffic Data system tracks activity at over 400 ports and communities. But most of these were built to serve small populations, fishing fleets, or resource extraction — not international shipping.

Here’s what the AEC’s StoryMap highlights about the current state of play:

• Murmansk is the Arctic’s largest shipping hub — a non-freezing, deep-water port on Russia’s Kola Peninsula that can handle all vessel types year-round. It is slated for major modernization.
• Alaska has deep-draft ports at Anchorage, Seward, Valdez, Kodiak, Unalaska, and Homer — but none along its 3,600 miles of Arctic coastline.
• Canada’s Arctic ports are few and small. Maritime traffic in the Canadian Arctic nearly tripled between 1990 and 2015, but port capacity hasn’t matched that growth.
• Northern Norway and Iceland offer ice-free access and are positioning themselves as transit hubs, with East Iceland’s Vopnafjörður harbour reaching depths of over 70 meters.
• Fishing vessels make up more than a third of all ships in the Arctic Polar Code area — the single largest category.

The cost of closing the gap is steep. A 2016 Guggenheim inventory counted 900 Arctic infrastructure projects worth an estimated $1 trillion, with at least $250 billion more expected. In Canada’s north, transport costs run 36% higher and communications costs 160% higher than national averages.