Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, warned on Thursday that the Artic Ocean could become completely iceless during the summer within the next two decades, The Hill reports.
Sullivan, the chair of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, said at a hearing on seafaring transportation in the Arctic that data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that sea ice in the Arctic was “42 percent thinner” in 2011 than it had been in 1979.
"If this trend continues, the Arctic Ocean may be ice free during the summer months within the next 20 years," he said, according to the Hill. “It therefore behooves our federal government ... to fully focus on preparing for this new eventuality.”
Sullivan added that a “chief concern” should be the location of the nearest deepwater port to the Artic Circle, which is “nearly 1,000 miles away.”
He said, “One chief concern among these challenges is the lack of a deepwater port within close enough proximity to serve as a staging area for search and rescue, pollution response, environmental concerns and arctic security operations.”
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.