The heavily increased vessel traffic in the Baltic, primarily due to growing crude oil exports from Russian Primorsk at the inner end of the Gulf of Finland, has led to an urgent need for ships' officers with experience in ice navigation. Fortunately, recent tanker accidents have not proved calamitous to vessel crews or the environment, but the potential for a major accident in the area exists. Typically, inexperience in ice navigation causes broken or deformed propeller blades, damaged rudders or steering machinery, or dents and ruptures in the shell plating and hull framing. Lack of ice navigation skills can also, as recent winters have proven, lead to ship-to-ship collisions and groundings.
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