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AECO's 13th. Arctic Cruise Conference
AECO’s 13th Arctic Cruise Conference brought together almost 100 participants in Oslo last month – among these were most of the international Arctic expedition cruise industry as well as government officials and other stakeholder connected to Arctic cruise tourism. A comprehensive program including issues such as cruise tourism updates on the different regions, industry issues, regulatory issues, crowd sourcing, search and rescue, industry clean-up efforts and citizen science. The Greenlandic part of the conference was opened by the Greenlandic Minister of Industry, Labor and Trade, Vittus Quiaukitsoq, who commended AECO on the organization’s work in regard to sustainable tourism. The conference was followed by the annual dinner at Restaurant DS Louise. Next year’s annual Arctic Cruise Conference will be held in Oslo on October 18th.
IAATO-AECO Field Staff Conference
AECO in cooperation with IAATO is planning a fourth Polar Field Staff Conference in the second half of 2017. The event and agenda will include presentations and work related to environmental and safety challenges in polar tourism.
The conference is scheduled to take place late September or early October.
Successful Svalbard Tourism Conference
The Norwegian Minister of Justice, Anders Anundsen, opened “Friske fraspark” in Longyearbyen September 5th. This well-attended and very successful Svalbard Tourism Conference was organized by AECO in cooperation with Visit Svalbard, Longyearbyen Business Council and the University Center in Longyearbyen with support from Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund. Almost 120 local and national participants heard presentations related to tourism development in Svalbard with special focus on use and protection. Among the speakers were also the the Norwegian State Secretary for the Ministry of Industry and Fishery, the Governor of Svalbard, Longyearbyen’s mayor and many other important stakeholders involved in tourism development in Svalbard. Among participants were tourism industry representatives, national authorities, support system representatives, researchers and others.
At the conference, the governor of Svalbard, Kjerstin Askholt, expressed satisfaction with “the good and responsible” tourism industry in the archipelago, but also pointed to missed opportunities as well as reasons to be vigilant to the potential of increasing negative impacts of growing tourism. Tourism in Svalbard is pointed out as a developing area and has been subject to growing attention after a decline in the Norwegian coal mining industry. Approximately 60.000 tourists visited Svalbard by airplane last year, and an additional 40.000 arrived by cruise vessels. The objectives for Longyearbyen is to double the number of employees in the tourism industry, which may involve a tripling of the number of tourists. The conference showed a remarkable level of agreement about the need for sustainable development.
AECO’s Annual General Meeting
On October 13th, following the Annual Arctic Cruise Conference, AECO’s members gathered for AECO’s 2016 Annual General Meeting. This newsletter will highlight a few of the most important issues covered.
AECO Position on UAV’s
During AECO’s Annual Meeting 2016 an amendment to further strengthen AECO guidelines regarding Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) was approved:
“AECO has banned a general use of UAV by revenue passengers in the Arctic. Use of UAV’s for special purposes may be decided by the operators within limits of regulations [the following text is new] and AECO guidelines. UAVs should not be used to pursue or follow wildlife.”
Arctic Cruise Tourism Development
AECO’s Annual Meeting 2016 has asked AECO’s Guideline Committee to assess present operational guidelines, and consider the need for amendments to meet the anticipated Arctic cruises in the future. A draft proposal from the Guidelines Committee is scheduled to be sent to the Executive Committee in the beginning of 2017.
AECO’s Position on HFO
Currently, there is no heavy fuel oil (HFO) ban in the Arctic, with the exemption of the nature reserves and the large national parks in Svalbard. AECO’s Annual Meeting 2016 reconfirmed that AECO will support an international ban on HFO for all ship traffic in the Arctic.
Such a ban would be beneficial to avoid the geographical differences, different national regulations as well as competitive differences between areas and among operators, and also would be consistent with AECO’s objectives to support regulations with clear environmental benefits.
AECO’s Joint SAR TTX
AECO participates in an increasing number of search and rescue exercises, conferences and events and has throughout the past few years significantly increased the number of contacts within the Arctic Search and Rescue (SAR) community. As a part of these efforts, AECO this year initiated and organized the first Joint Arctic Search and Rescue (SAR) Workshop and Table Top Exercise (TTX), in partnership with Coast Guard Iceland and Hurtigruten. The workshop, which was carried out in Reykjavik in April, gathered Arctic SAR entities, Arctic cruise operators and vessel owners and was considered highly successful.
AECO will in cooperation with the Icelandic Coast Guard, arrange a second Joint Arctic SAR TTX in Reykjavik on April 5-6, 2017. The event aims at gathering mariners, captains and other with special maritime competencies, as well as the Arctic SAR community.
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Implementation of Guidelines
AECO, in cooperation with Paul Whipp from Lakehead University, has asked members and field staff to participate in a survey investigating the implementation of AECO’s guidelines on company and field staff levels. The results were presented at AECO’s Annual Meeting 2016 and the meeting decided that a number of follow-up steps should be taken on the findings. The action points include the amendment of AECO’s guidelines related to implementation and compliance; an annual survey to be undertaken on members’ efforts in this area; and the goal of making the upcoming field staff online assessment compulsory for field staff of AECO members.
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Quark Expeditions Wins Puffin Award
During the past operational year, AECO’s secretariat has given out 134 Puffins. Again, this year the proud winner of the prestigious Puffin Award was Quark Expeditions with a total of 21 Puffins.
Background
At AECO’s Annual Meeting 2014, the Puffin Award and traveling trophy was established. The trophy consists of a bronze statue of a puffin, designed by Suzie March. The statue was donated to AECO by Silversea Expeditions. AECO’s Puffin Award was created to encourage members of AECO to contribute to the association and its membership. AECO contributions are awarded with imaginary puffins. At the end of the operational year, the member who has received most puffins receives the award at AECO’s annual dinner in connection with AECO’s annual meeting and cruise conference.
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Svalbard
Management Plan for Spitsbergen’s National Parks and Bird Sanctuaries
The Governor of Svalbard has issued a proposal for a management plan for West Spitsbergen national parks and bird sanctuaries. The proposal includes a requirement to develop site-specific guidelines before landing at nine sites along the coast. AECO has already developed site guidelines for seven of the relevant sites and will initiate the development of two additional guidelines for our members. AECO has advocated for the use of site guidelines as a management tool instead of stricter regulation such as landing prohibition.
The management plan also includes a proposal to establish: a new larger bird sanctuary in Liefdefjorden; restrictions nearby the hot springs in Woodfjorden; and new managements tools at Gravnesodden in Magdalenefjorden and in Virgohamna. It also includes a proposal to give the governor the authority to require cleaning of booths, clothes and equipment to avoid the introduction of alien species.
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New AECO Yacht Committee
The Annual Meeting 2016 decided to establish a Yachts Working Committee. The committee’s first assignment is to look at possible yacht guidelines, and consider if/how AECO can provide assistance and relevant information for private yachts (motor and sailing yachts) intending to cruise Arctic waters.
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New members
AECO is pleased to welcome Ponant as a Provisional member of the association. Ponant is a French company that will be operating the vessels Le Boreal and Le Soleal in the Arctic in 2017. Furthermore, AECO is pleased to welcome Cruise Iceland as an Affiliate member.
At AECO’s Annual Meeting 2016 in Oslo last month, four members applied for full membership and were welcomed as such. These members are: Noble Caledonia, EYOS Expeditions, Seabourn Cruises and Boreal Yachting. In addition to these, Scandinavian Bunkering informed the meeting of it name change to Glander International Bunkering.
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RECENT AECO MEETINGS
The Netherlandish Arctic Ambassador
AECO had the honor of meeting The Netherland's Arctic Ambassador, Kees Rode, in Longyearbyen this summer. Ambassador Rode was visiting Svalbard together with Polar Affairs Advisor Marlies den Boer and Senior Adviser Arne O'Donoghue from The Netherland's Embassy in Norway. Arjen Drost from Oceanwide Expeditions joined the meeting and updated the ambassador about the company’s special clean-up Svalbard cruise.
AECO Participating in R&D partnership
Arctic Expedition cruise industry efforts and positions related to safety, search and rescue, and contingency planning were on the agenda when the International Research and Development (R&D) partnership on maritime safety and security in the high north met onboard the Hurtigruten vessel Nordlys last month.
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Pilotage in Svalbard
On Tuesday October 11th, AECO held a meeting with the Norwegian Hydrographic Service and the Norwegian Coastal Administration regarding pilotage and mapping in eastern Svalbard. The current situation is that a vessel taking a pilot cannot circumnavigate Spitsbergen or Svalbard due to the lack of official hydrographic charts.
It was decided to continue the discussion at a future meeting, which would look at ways to speed up production of official charts, new soundings as well as considering other potential areas/corridors where soundings should be prioritized. There will also be a discussion exploring whether the industry can be of assistance in this effort or if there can be cooperation between the industry and the pilotage service to educate pilots. The meeting will take place in Oslo at the beginning of December.
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