Captain J.

Ashley Roach, JAGC, USN (retired)

Office of the Legal Adviser
U.S. Department of State (retired)
CIL Senior Visiting Principal Research Fellow
CIL Workshop: Ocean Governance and
International Shipping - Session 2
Friday 21 April 2017
 Overview
 Polar Code geographic scope of application
 Effects of reduction of extent of Arctic Ocean sea ice
 Making Polar Code mandatory
 Implementation of Polar Code
 Future work on Polar Code

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 World Map (Mercator projection)
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mercator-projection.jpg

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. Arctic Sea Ice Extent: Minimum and Maximum
Source: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

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 Possible New Routes through Arctic Ocean:
Shorter distance of around 3,900 to 4,500 nm in both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route
Sources: http://www.grida.no/graphicslib/detail/northern-sea-route-and-the-northwest-passage-compared-with-currently-used-
shipping-routes_1336.
Author: Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal; http://www.discoveringthearctic.org.uk/images/1img_nwne_globes.jpg

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Polar Code Arctic Geographic Scope of Application
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 IMO Tacit Acceptance Procedure

Committee Committee
Interval Interval Entry into force
Meeting Meeting

MSC 93
SOLAS Article VIII
approved for MSC 94 Deemed accepted
Amendments to Minimum Minimum one
circulation new adopted 1 July 2016
Regulations except 6 months year
Chapter XIV Nov. 2014 EIF 1 January 2017
Chapter I
May 2014

MEPC 67
MARPOL Article 16 MEPC 68 Deemed accepted
approved for Minimum Minimum 10
Amendments to Annexes adopted 1 July 2016
circulation October 6 months months
I, II, IV, V May 2015 EIF 1 January 2017
2014

MSC 95 MSC 97
MSC 97
STCW Article XII approved for Minimum 6 Minimum one Deemed accepted
adopted Nov
Amendments to Annex circulation months year 1 January 2018
2016
June 2015 EIF 1 July 2018

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 Applicability of Polar Code
 Applies to merchant ships of 500 gt or greater operating in polar waters
whether or not on international voyages
 Existing ships (constructed before January 2017) intending to transit or
operate within polar waters required to comply with Polar Code by the first
intermediate survey or renewal survey, whichever comes first, after 1 January
2018
 Applicable to new ships constructed after 1 January 2017 – may be months
later
 Port State Control would thus begin 1 January 2018 at the earliest
 May be voluntary compliance earlier as a commercial decision (competitive
advantage) for ships intending to transit during 2017
 Not many trans-Arctic Ocean voyages in 2016
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 Implementation of Polar Code
 At CIL workshop 29 November 2016 participants identified steps being
taken to implement the Polar Code which entered into force 1 January
2017
 The USCG will be implementing in stages through several rulemakings
 Republic of Korea has issued a notice on implementation
 Russian Register of Shipping reported to have developed a model
Polar Water Operational Manual
 P&I clubs will require full compliance to have coverage
 Paris and Tokyo Port State Control MOUs being updated
 Work has not begun on revising the IMO PSC Guidelines

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 Canadian Implementation of Polar Code
 At a CIL seminar on 2 March 2017, Professor Aldo Chircop of
Dalhousie University law school noted that the Polar Code’s provisions
are largely equivalent to the Canadian regime and that the differences
are not considered significant
 Chircop said that current Canadian legislation (mostly regulations) will
be amended by:
 Applying the consistent provisions
 Scale up rules which are less stringent than the Polar Code
 Keep current rules that offer higher protection than the Polar Code
 See his presentation for details at https://cil.nus.edu.sg/programmes-
and-activities/past-events/managing-shipping-in-canadian-arctic-
waters-assumptions-aspirations-and-concerns/
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 Russia’s Jurisdiction over Northern Sea Route
 At a 21 February 2017 CIL seminar on “Russia’s Coastal State
Jurisdiction over the Arctic Northern Sea Route,” Jan Solski of the K.G.
Jebsen Centre for the Law of the Sea, University of Tromsø—the Arctic
University of Norway described the evolution of Russia’s regulation of
shipping through the Northern Sea Route
 At the time of his presentation it was not known how Russia intends to
implement the Polar Code
 For his presentation see https://cil.nus.edu.sg/programmes-and-
activities/past-events/russias-coastal-state-jurisdiction-over-the-arctic-
northern-sea-route/
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 Northern Sea Route
 At a CIL 23 February 2017 seminar on “Challenges for Arctic Marine
Transport and the Northern Sea Route,” Professor Lawson Brigham,
University of Alaska Fairbanks, discussed
 Arctic marine traffic and global links
 Changing Arctic marine access
 Northern Sea Route and future Yamal LNG project
 Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment
 Suggested a plausible future maritime Arctic
 For details see https://cil.nus.edu.sg/programmes-and-activities/past-
events/challenges-for-arctic-marine-transport-and-the-northern-sea-
route/
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 Future Work on Polar Code
 Current version understood to be only the beginning. To be improved as
experience is gathered
 Formal work on stage 2 has not begun at the IMO
 Sub-Committees are studying risk assessment methodology, additional
performance and test standards on life-saving appliances, extending
Polar Code to non-SOLAS ships
 Survey Guidelines have been amended
 Calls for ban on use of heavy fuel oil in Arctic Ocean as is now the case
in the Southern Ocean

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Thank you for your attention

Questions?

jashleyr@yahoo.com

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