Loosening Lips to Avoid Sinking Ships: Designing a Ship Communications System for the Bering Strait Region

Abstract

This article compares systems that regulate ship traffic and communications and discusses the legal requirements for each one. It provides recommendations for a regulatory system for the Bering Strait and its surrounding waters — a remote and ecologically important region that is vulnerable to damage from increasing Arctic ship traffic. In cooperation with its Russian counterpart, the United States Coast Guard could work through the International Maritime Organization to establish a ship reporting system, a ship routing system, and/or vessel traffic services, as well as special areas that would be subject to additional regulatory measures. In designing a system, the Coast Guard should consider the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission reporting system already in place for oil and gas vessels in waters off the coast of Alaska.