50 BBC Wildlife April 2020Almostexactly 175 yearsago,in1845,HMSErebusandHMS
TerrorsailedwestfromDiskoBay,Greenlandona planned
three-yearexpeditionledbyCaptainSirJohnFranklin,aiming
tonavigatetheice-chokedwatersbetweenBaffinBayandthe
Pacificcoast.BythefollowingSeptember,bothshipswere
icebound;a yearlaterFranklinperished,followedbytherest
ofhiscrew,someofwhomallegedlyresortedtocannibalism.
Nonecompletedthejourney.
InSeptember2016,aroundthetimethewreckoftheTerror
wasdiscovered,some1,000touristssailedfromAnchorage
toNewYork,enjoyingcloseencounterswithpolarbearsand
whales– aswellasa choiceofrestaurantsandbars,a gymand
pool,evena cinemaandnightclub.TheCrystalSerenitywasTalking
point
the first conventional luxury cruise ship to
traverse the infamous Northwest Passage –
but it won’t be the last.
Change is afoot in the Arctic, largely
driven by climate change. On 16 September
2012, Arctic sea-ice reached its lowest
recorded extent: 3.41 million km , nearly 50
per cent less than the 1979–2000 average
minimum. Stretches once consistently
packed with ice, notably the Northwest
Passage and Northeast Passage (including
the Northern Sea Route, off Russia’s Arctic
coast), are now ice-free for much of the
year, permitting large-scale shipping traffic.
That latter route offers an alternative to
the Indian Ocean/Suez Canal route for
commercial vessels linking Asia with
Europe, cutting as much as 40 per cent off
the journey time. And, of course, it also
opens the way for increased tourism.
The booming global cruise market –
passenger numbers ballooned from 17.8