An approach for including polar class vessels in the Canadian arctic shipping regulations

Transport Canada has indicated that they will be updating the Arctic Shipping Pollution Prevention Regulations (ASPPR) which are used to regulate shipping in the Canadian Arctic. There are several reasons for this. The Canadian Hydraulics Centre of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC-CHC) has performed significant research to evaluate the veracity of the two existing systems (Zone-Date System and Ice Regime System) that form part of these Regulations. The research clearly showed that neither system properly takes into account the ice conditions and the allowable areas for different vessels in Canada's Arctic waters. Further, these Regulatory Systems are based on various classifications for ice-strengthening vessels including Baltic Class, Arctic Class, and Canadian Arctic Class. Recently, the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) has harmonized their classifications for Arctic vessels and has developed standards for seven Polar Class (PC) vessels. These vessel classes are not included in current Canadian regulations. Because of this, the Canadian government has investigated ways to update the Arctic shipping regulations to include the PC vessels by using a science-based approach. This paper presents an overview of the approach and highlights the results of the research to include the Polar Class vessels in the Canadian regulations.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye