Ships take to Arctic Ocean as sea ice melts

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Journey times between Europe and China can be reduced by half
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39394645/ns/world_news-world_environment/


Arctic sea ice — seen here providing some work for U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy near Barrow, Alaska, in July 2006 —
has melted to the extent that the Arctic Ocean is becoming a new trade route.

The search for the Northwest Passage was once the preserve of explorers hoping to find a lucrative new trade route linking Europe with the Far East.
Now the decline in the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean is turning their failed dream into a reality.

Between 1906 and 2006 only 69 ships made the journey but in 2009 alone 24 vessels made the journey, according to Canadian maritime law expert Michael Byers,
Germany's Der Spiegel newspaper reported.

Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grímsson recently claimed that the route was becoming a "trans-Arctic Panama Canal," the paper said.

Der Spiegel reported that new ships are being designed to cope with icebergs on the journey.