AECO’s push to speed up the chartering in Eastern and South Svalbard has given results. A shipping lane through Storfjorden, including a lane along the coast of Edgeøya has been chartered.
New nautical charts, no. 528 «Storfjorden. Sør. Isbukta – Kvalpynten» and no. 532 «Storfjorden. Kvalpynten – Agardhbukta», and a new edition of no. 533 «Storfjorden Nord. Freemansundet – Heleysundet – Sørporten», will be issued today, May 9th 2018. The new nautical charts will not be printed but are available on order through Print on Demand.
Previous edition of chart no. 533 is from now invalid. Chart no. 528, 532 and 533 are in scale 1:100 000, but chart 533 has two special editions: Ormholet in scale 1:20 000 and Heleysundet 1:50 000. The width of the chartered corridors are 2,5 nautical miles/5 km.
In addition to the above, the Norwegian Mapping Authorities has also chartered a corridor around Sørkapp. The nautical chart, no. 527, is expected later this summer.
The illustrations below show which area the new charts cover (marked in green), an example from the corridors, and the corridor chartered around Sørkapp (marked in red) where the nautical charts will be available later this summer.
These new charts are a result of dialogue and cooperation between AECO, the Norwegian Mapping Authority and the Norwegian Coastal Administration. AECO invited the mentioned authorities to dialogue meetings with the objective to speed up the chartering (and nautical chart production) in cruise industry prioritized areas, included shipping lanes in Storfjorden and around Sørkapp. The Norwegian Mapping Authority highlighted AECO’s input in the press release (Norwegian only) announcing the new charts.
Three pilots have been trained for pilotage in Hinlopen, as far south as Freemansundet. The pilotage service is presently considering when they can offer piloting in Storfjorden, hence circumnavigation of Spitsbergen.
The pilot training is in process, but there are still limitations. Operators who will need pilots in the coming years should inform the Norwegian Pilot Service as soon as possible.
New (edition) charts 533, 532 and 528:
Details from shipping lane: 
Chartered lane, new nautical chart expected later this summer:
