Sometime between Sunday and Monday evenings, Greenwich Mean Time, the bulk carrier Nordic Orion passed through the Northwest Passage and into Baffin Bay, sailing into history as it went. 
 
 The ship – a 225-metre, ice-strengthened carrier loaded with B.C. coal bound for Finland – became the first bulk carrier to make the voyage, which has lured explorers for more than a century and has long been eyed as a commercial route. 
 
 Until the Nordic Orion, however, the passage was travelled mostly by icebreakers, tugs and small cargo ships hauling supplies to northern communities, as well as adventurers undertaking the journey in rowboats and even Jet Skis. 
 
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 With a commercial bulk carrier now having passed through the route, discussions about Arctic sovereignty and marine infrastructure have become more than theoretical. 
 
 "The Canadian government needs to take a firm stand on shipping via the Northwest passage in order to safeguard the environment and to enforce Canada's sovereignty," James Given, president of the Seafarers' International Union of Canada, said Wednesday in an e-mail. "There must be a net benefit to Canada, and Canadian stakeholders in the shipping industry, not just an open door to Flag of Convenience Shipping to increase their profit margins by shaving miles off of their shipping routes." 
 
 The SIU represents sailors working in Canadian waters and on vessels delivering cargo to the United States, Europe and South America. 
 
 By sailing through the Northwest Passage, the Nordic Orion was able to trim about 1,000 nautical miles from the usual route through the Panama Canal. It was also able to carry about 25 per cent more coal, given how shallow the canal is. 
 
 Transport Canada, along with the Canadian Coast Guard, monitored the vessel while it was in the Northwest Passage, and the ship was required to provide daily position and ice conditions to Nordreg, a Coast Guard agency. 
 
 The Nordic Orion is owned by Nordic Bulk Carriers, a Danish company that has staked its future on Artic shipping. In 2010, it became the first non-Russian company to use the Northern Sea Route when it shipped iron ore from Norway to China. 
 
 This is the first time the company has sent one of its vessels through the Northwest Passage. It left Vancouver on Sept. 6, loaded with metallurgical coal. Port Metro Vancouver says the Nordic Orion loaded at Neptune Terminals, which is partly owned by Vancouver-based Teck Corp., one of the world's biggest producers of metallurgical coal. 
 
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 Metallurgical coal is used primarily in steel making, while thermal coal is used in electricity plants. 
 
 Neither Neptune Terminals nor Teck would comment on the sailing, citing customer confidentiality, and Teck said it does not use the Northwest Passage. But shipping agents say most coal is sold on a "freight on board" basis, which means that the customer takes ownership of the product as soon as it is loaded on the ship, and that Teck would not monitor or even necessarily know which route the coal would take to its final destination. 
 
 While shipping agents in Vancouver and around the world are mulling potential implications for shipping commodities, others have voiced concerns about the lack of environmental and safety infrastructure in Canada's North. 
 
 In a recent article, Michael Byers, an international law expert at the University of British Columbia, noted that Canada does not have a single port along the Northwest Passage but that Russia, by comparison, has 16 deep water ports along its Arctic coastline. ||||| LONDON A large freighter completed a voyage through the hazardous Arctic Northwest Passage for the first time this week, showing the potential for cutting shipment times and costs as global warming opens new routes. 
 
 The 75,000 deadweight-ton Nordic Orion, built in 2011 by a Japanese shipyard, left the Canadian Pacific port of Vancouver in early September and is scheduled to arrive in the Finnish port of Pori on October 7, according to AIS shipping data. 
 
 The ship will deliver coking coal from Canadian miner Teck Resources to Ruukki Metals, a Finnish steel producer. 
 
 "By using this route the voyage is around a week shorter than using the Panama Canal, so overall we are paying less in freight costs," said Sakari Kallo, senior vice president of metals production at Ruukki. 
 
 Nordic Bulk Carriers, the Danish operator of the ship, estimated that the route saved around $80,000 worth of fuel. 
 
 "The Northwest Passage is more than 1,000 nautical miles shorter than the traditional shipping route through the Panama Canal and will save time, fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but even more importantly increase the amount of cargo per transit 25 percent," it said. 
 
 The Arctic route also enabled the Nordic Orion to carry its full capacity, adding 15,000 tons of coal that it would not have transported via the Panama Canal, where the depth limits the size of ships and cargo, the marine operator added. 
 
 HIGH RISKS 
 
 Maritime experts said the new route could result in much lower fuel costs in transporting bulky materials such as coal but also could expose vessels to delays if icebergs blocked their path. 
 
 "Shipping through the Northwest Passage is a high-risk, high-gain strategy," said Knut Espen Solberg, a former Arctic mariner and a specialist with Norwegian shipping services company DNV. 
 
 Until now, harsh Arctic conditions have limited shipping on the passage mostly to small cargo vessels and ice-breakers, which supply northern Canadian communities. 
 
 The 225 meter long Nordic Orion, a panamax-sized ship, has a strengthened hull to cope with floating ice. 
 
 Many scientists say the melting of Arctic ice is a consequence of warmer temperatures caused by greenhouse gases emitted by burning fossil fuels, particularly coal. 
 
 In another development on Friday, leading climate scientists said they were more certain than ever that mankind is the main culprit for global warming. 
 
 As the ice continues to melt, some experts have estimated that shipping via the Arctic could account for a quarter of the cargo traffic between Europe and Asia by 2030. 
 
 Last November, Russian gas export company Gazprom made the first ever delivery of liquefied natural gas through the Arctic north-east route, sailing from Norway east to Japan. 
 
 Many maritime analysts have said, however, that large volumes of commercial shipping via the Arctic are at least 10 years away. 
 
 (editing by Jane Baird)
– Sure, scientists are nearly positive that humans are heating up the planet, but there's an upside: more efficient shipping. For the first time, a major freighter has crossed the Northwest Passage in the Arctic, reports the Toronto Globe and Mail. The 735-foot Nordic Orion achieved the feat this week when it entered Baffin Bay. Doing so shaved 1,000 nautical miles off the usual route through the Panama Canal and saved the freighter's Danish operators about $80,000 worth of fuel, reports Reuters. The fact that the ship burned less fuel than normal might be a small silver lining for environmentalists—until they see its cargo: coal, and lots of it, bound from British Columbia to Finland. And because the freighter didn't have to pass through the shallow Panama Canal, it was able to carry 25% more of the stuff, reports the National Post. The feat is expected to speed up international talks on shipping regulations for the passage, which until now had been mostly theoretical, notes the Globe and Mail.