Arctida map tracks shadow fleet on Northern Sea Route
Arctida has published an interactive map that lets users track vessel traffic along Russia’s Northern Sea Route from 2023 to 2025.
The map plots each vessel as a point at a specific moment in time. Clicking a point shows the ship’s name, type, flag state and how many hours it spent in that location. A flag filter reveals which countries’ vessels appeared on the route and direct links to Global Fishing Watch allow users to view any vessel’s full track.
Three filters single out vessels of particular concern. The aging-tankers filter flags oil tankers more than 15 years old; ships subject to greater wear, more frequent mechanical failures and poorly suited to the NSR’s severe ice conditions. Arctida notes that any spill response in these waters would be extremely difficult given the route’s remoteness, lack of infrastructure and harsh climate.
A sanctioned-vessels filter highlights what Arctida describes as the route’s growing role in opaque cargo transportation schemes, primarily involving oil shipments. A protected-areas layer shows the boundaries of conservation zones along the NSR, letting users see when and which vessels entered them despite navigation restrictions. Arctida has compiled a downloadable dataset of those crossings.
The data are aggregated from Global Fishing Watch, with sanctions lists drawn from OpenSanctions and ice and geographic data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.
