The US GAO recently released a new report, Maritime Infrastructure: Key Issues Related to Commercial Activity in the U.S. Arctic over the Next Decade. Based on interviews with industry representatives who are in the process of exploring the region’s commercial readiness, the report found “general challenges related to operating in the Arctic, such as geography, extreme weather, and hard-to-predict ice floes.” These challenges make commercial activity difficult, but they also impact search and rescue missions, research, Coast Guard patrols and general operability. The main recommendation from this report is to prioritize two near term, broad categories: ” information infrastructure, such as mapping and charting, and response services, such as search and rescue.” (more…)