DALIAN, China -- The Arctic Ocean, which many people had hoped would serve as a nautical shortcut lopping thousands of miles off international shipping routes, has seen a falloff in ship traffic, partly due to geopolitical changes.
The Chinese icebreaker Xuelong was trapped in freezing Antarctic waters in late 2013.
© Courtesy of Arctic Portal
The number of ships that used the Northeast Passage connecting Asia and Europe via the waters north of Russia fell 14% last year. Gross cargo tonnage sank 45%.
