COAST guard officials from
the US and Canada will conduct
a training exercise next month
in order to be fully prepared for
a mass rescue from a potential
large cruise ship catastrophe.
Hopefully it will never happen,
but the initiative is a response to
the upcoming voyage of Crystal
Serenity through the Bering Strait
and Northwest Passage.
Receding Arctic ice has made
the Passage accessible without
an icebreaker since 2007, with 17
ships making the transit last year.
Crystal Serenity will be the
biggest ship ever to go through
the Northwest Passage, with the
sold out voyage to be escorted
throughout by an icebreaker
carrying two helicopters.
