The Artic: A New Gateway?

In a recent piece in Eureka the article refers to studies which present concerns regarding the migration of species across an open seas in the Arctic.

They state:

For the first time in roughly 2 million years, melting Arctic sea ice is connecting the north Pacific and north Atlantic oceans. The newly opened passages leave both coasts and Arctic waters vulnerable to a large wave of invasive species, biologists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center assert in a commentary published May 28 in Nature Climate Change. Two new shipping routes have opened in the Arctic: the Northwest Passage through Canada, and the Northern Sea Route, a 3000-mile stretch along the coasts of Russia and Norway connecting the Barents and Bering seas. While new opportunities for tapping Arctic natural resources and interoceanic trade are high, commercial ships often inadvertently carry invasive species. Organisms from previous ports can cling to the undersides of their hulls or be pumped in the enormous tanks of ballast water inside their hulls. Now that climate change has given ships a new, shorter way to cross between oceans, the risks of new invasions are escalating.

Now some brief thoughts. First if some higher species decided Homo sapiens should not cross from Asia to the Americas I wonder what would have happened here? Second, an open Arctic passage has been sought for centuries and perhaps this may lead to substantial changes in trade; for better or worse. Third, we have argued that putting fiber across the Arctic, North America and Russia, would be highly productive. This may open up that opportunity.