Polar Hazards

The Polar Code was designed to consider hazards with increased risks and address those risks in order to mitigate them. Let's discuss these ten main identified hazards.

Ice

Ice can affect every aspect of shipping, from the working environment to safety systems. The presence of ice, and its structure, determines the structure of the hull necessary to safely traverse waters. It also can affect the ship's ability to stabilize as well as impact the machinery systems, navigation systems, and safety and security systems. Ice must be taken into account when developing and executing emergency preparation plans and maintenance tasks.

Topside icing

Topside icing can interfere with proper equipment function as well as the ship's ability to stabilize.

Low temperatures

Much like ice, low temperatures affect the working environment and a person's ability to perform necessary tasks. Low temperatures impact maintenance and emergency tasks, material properties and equipment efficiency, survival time, and the performance of safety equipment and systems.

Seasonal daylight and darkness

Both polar regions experience extended daylight and darkness hours depending on the season. These conditions can be quite extreme, where some seasons only allow an hour of light during a 24-hour period, or, in the opposite scenario, only an hour of darkness during a 24-hour period. These extremes can impact human performance as well as navigation.

High latitudes

High latitudes predominately impact equipment and systems, most commonly navigation and communication systems, as well as the quality of ice imagery information.

Due to the vast and largely uninhabited nature of both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, there are multiple hazards a vessel can encounter. There is a possible lack of accurate and complete representations of the physical features of navigable areas. This increases the potential risk for possible groundings. In the Arctic and Antarctic regions, there are limited search and rescue facilities. This, coupled with limited communications and an expansive area, can deeply impact incident response time.

Experience

When a ship's crew has had little to no experience in polar operations, the potential for human error increases exponentially. Polar region training is imperative.

Emergency response equipment

A lack of proper emergency equipment, or the knowledge of its proper use, renders the crew and its passengers ineffective.

Weather

Weather conditions in polar regions can be severe and subject to rapid change. This increases the potential for a hazardous incident to occur.

Environment

Not unlike any other aspect of these regions, the environment is unique. It is sensitive to harmful substances, and the restoration process takes a significantly longer period of time.

Many factors impact the hazards incurred in polar waters, such as location, season, ice coverage, and more. The response necessary to mitigate the hazards present will vary accordingly.

To learn more about Polar Code visit our Polar Code Online Training web page.