Alaska Beat doesn't want to throw cold water on the excitement over increased ship traffic in Arctic waters or anything, but ... According to a long story from Nunatsiaq News (Nunavut), based on discussion at a recent Arctic shipping conference in Montreal, shipping goods around the North is still a very risky business and is likely to remain that way for quite some time. Operators who ply Arctic waters around Nunavut and Nunavik say that there are still too many risks to make sailing Arctic waters worth the trouble for most shippers. And sea ice isn't the only problem. Significant limitations are still posed by the environment and a lack of knowledge and infrastructure. The coastline between most ports along Canada's Arctic coast generally lacks safe places for distressed ships to anchor out of harm's way, and tides are generally large, posing navigational and other difficulties. Added to that is a serious lack of navigational support, infrastructure and emergency response. Read much more here.