The Bering Strait has been a nexus of trade for millennia [1]. People, materials, technology, and ideas flowed from Asia to North America and back, making the area a focal point for innovation and exchange. Commercial enterprises arrived more recently. In the 1840s, commercial whalers reached the Bering Strait, opening a new era of trade and exploitation [2]. The 20th century saw the rise of village, mine, or oilfield support vessels to destinations in northern Alaska and Russia, and more recently the proliferation of commercial ship traffic through and along the Northern Sea Route across Russia's Arctic coast [3]. Industrial development in the Arctic