Abstract: Following warming and decreasing of pack ice concentrations in the Artic region, the navigability of Arctic passages is increasing. The environment and ecosystem of the Arctic Ocean are fragile, and the influence of increasing Arctic shipping on the local marine environment and ecosystem is of public concern. Fuel leakage, exhaust emission, wastewater discharge, and noise disturbance, are all factors that could affect the environments and ecosystems of these passages. We summarize the situation, discuss the Arctic marine ecosystem and navigation patterns, analyze each factor, and calculate their risk coefficients using the method of Analytical Hierarchy Process. The result shows that exhaust emission, wastewater discharge and fuel leakage are the three most important factors likely to affect the Arctic region related to shipping. Development and application of innovative monitoring technologies will be extremely useful in the future. From the perspective of sustainable Arctic passage utilization, we propose some initiatives, which include studying and developing pollution prevention and control technologies, setting up of ecologically functional zones, constructing an integrated monitoring and assessment system, and strengthening the study of the impacts of fuel leaks.

Key words: Arctic passage, shipping, ecosystem, environment