Ice Conditions and Human Factors in Marine Accidents at the Arctic

All activities in the Arctic are conducted near the limit of technological opportunities and human abilities. But the drain of resources in the areas convenient for development obliges us to look at this severe polar region. The main objectives of the PetroArctic project (offshore and coastal technology for petroleum production and transport from arctic water) as a part of PETROMAX and MarSafe project (Marine Safety Management) are to obtain and provide information for safety of Arctic operation such as hydrocarbons production and transport from Polar seas. One of the tasks is a collection of ice pilot experiences from the people involved in the Arctic activities to learn how they felt in these conditions, how they solved difficult tasks and managed the ice. Items of special interest are connected to lost vessels and other marine accidents. Appreciable amount of written documentation and interviews have been processed and organized into a data base of marine accidents in Russian Arctic since 1900. It includes a set of maps where the locations of the accidents are shown with a description of the accidents (date, geographical environment, vessel type, what happened and how the people acted, etc). This paper includes the map for Kara Sea and descriptions of several accidents in the eastern part of Arctic as example of different situations, as well as the principles of the data base construction and accidents classification.