Cruising to Nome: The first U.S. deep water port for the Arctic to host cruise ships, military

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Anchorage, Alaska (Associated Press) — Anchored off Nome, the cruise ship carrying about 1,000 passengers is too big to dart into the tiny port city of Tundra. Wealthy tourists had to sneak in small boats for another ride to shore.

It was 2016, and at the time, the Serenity cruise ship was the largest ship to sail through the Northwest Passage.

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But as Arctic sea ice subsides under the pressures of global warming and shipping lanes open up across the top of the globe, more tourists are venturing to Nome—a northwest Alaskan destination better known for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and gold rush of 1898 than for luxury travel.

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The problem remains: there is no place to park the big boats. While smaller cruise ships are able to dock, officials say that of the dozens arriving this year, half will dock overseas.

This is expected to change as the over $600 million expansion makes Nome, with a population of 3,500, the nation’s first Arctic deep-water port. The expansion, expected to be operational by the end of the decade, will accommodate not only larger cruise ships of up to 4,000 passengers, but cargo ships to deliver additional cargo to the 60 Alaskan Native villages in the region, and military vessels to counter the presence of Russian and Chinese ships in the Arctic.

It’s a prospect that excites business owners and officials in Nome, but worries others who worry about the impact the additional tourists and ship traffic will have on the environment and the animals that Alaskan Natives depend on for their livelihood.

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Inupiaq resident Alice Beauve said the expansion “will support our local economy and local artists here, Indigenous artists who have access to visitors and education and share our culture, our language and how we make our beautiful art.” sleep.

Beauve was a tour guide who greeted Serenity passengers upon their arrival in 2016. One guest was impressed with the cloth cospock, a traditional robe-like Alaskan Native garment, and wanted to know if it was waterproof.

It wasn’t, but the interaction inspired Bioff to create her own line of waterproof kuspuks-style jackets. It now sells to tourists and locals alike from its gift shop, Naataq Gear, a retail space in the Post Office Building, where about 20 Alaskan Native artists offer ivory carvings, beadwork, or paintings by consignment.

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City manager Glenn Stickman said studies show that cruise ship passengers typically spend about $100 a day on a sleepover.

With this expansion, he hopes guests on larger cruise ships will extend their stays to experience more of Nome and the tundra, to see wild musk ox, or sip a drink at the 123-year-old Board of Trade saloon.

Climate change makes all of this possible.

Nome, which was founded after gold was discovered in 1898, has experienced six of the 10 warmest winters on record just this century. Shipping lanes in the Bering Strait have become busiest since 2009, going from 262 transits that year to 509 in 2022.

“We will be the first deep sea port in the Arctic but probably not the last,” said Nome Mayor John Handland.

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On average, Bering Sea ice reaches Nome in late November or December, about two or three weeks later than it did 50 years ago, said Rick Thomann, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ International Center for Arctic Research.

In 2019, the Iditarod riders, who lead their teams of dogs over the ice of the Bering Sea to the finish line in Nome, were forced ashore by open water. The ice season will get shorter, Thomann said.

The current harbor bridge was completed in the mid-1980s. The expansion will be completed in three phases and will effectively double its size. The first part of the project is funded by $250 million in federal infrastructure funds plus another $175 million from the Alaska Legislature. Field work is expected to begin next year.

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Currently three ships can dock simultaneously; The extended berth will accommodate seven to 10.

Port Superintendent Joey Baker said workers would dig a new trough 40 feet (12.2 meters) deep, allowing large Navy ships, cargo ships and every U.S. military vessel except aircraft carriers to dock.

US Rep. Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, said the expanded port would become the hub of US strategic infrastructure in the Arctic. The Army is building resources in Alaska, placing fighter jets at bases in Anchorage and Fairbanks, creating a new airborne division in Alaska, training soldiers for future cold weather conflicts and has missile defense capabilities.

“The way to have a presence in the Arctic is to be able to have military assets and the infrastructure that supports those assets,” Sullivan said.

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The northern seas near Alaska are getting busier. A U.S. Coast Guard patrol came across seven Chinese and Russian navies that cooperated in a drill last year 86 miles (138 kilometers) north of Kiska Island in Alaska.

Coast Guard ships in 2021 also encountered Chinese vessels 50 miles (80 km) off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned last year that Russia and China had pledged to cooperate in the Arctic, “a deep strategic partnership that challenges our values ​​and interests.”

However, the prospect of Nome receiving more tourists and a greater military presence troubles some residents. Inupiak resident Austin Ahmasuk said the original construction of the port displaced an area traditionally used for subsistence hunting or fishing, and expansion would not help.

“The port of Nome is development only for the sake of development,” said Ahmasuk.

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