Tin City photo

The view from Tin City, in the foreground, looks across the Bering Strait to the Diomede islands, and beyond them, Chukotka, Russia. This is the narrowest point of the Bering Strait, and an increasingly important shipping site in the Arctic. Loren Holmes photo

At a symposium earlier this month on the Impacts of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic held in Washington, D.C., Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski … noted the growing number of ships transiting the Northern Sea Route each year. Forty-six ships made the journey last year, up from a reported four in 2011.

These voyages could be a boon for Alaska, but talk of developing a large trans-shipment hub in the Aleutian Islands could also be a boondoggle.

Ships sailing from west to east through the Northern Sea Route to East Asia have little need to stop in the Aleutians before delivering their cargo or resources, which will likely include liquefied natural gas. To really thrive as a trans-shipment hub, Alaska will probably need the Northwest Passage to become more accessible. Alaska cannot just build infrastructure like a deep draft port and hope that ships will come calling. The geoeconomic conditions have to be right as well.

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