With thousands of ships passing through the Aleutian Islands every year along the Great Circle shipping route, it’s inevitable that every once in a while one of them will encounter a problem.

In the past, rough weather and a lack of readily available response resources have resulted in some of those problems turning into disasters.  But since 2009 the Aleutian Islands Risk Assessment advisory panel has been working to improve prevention measures and response capabilities in the region.

Last fall, the panel recommended a number of immediately implementable steps to improve the safety of shipping in the Aleutians.  Now, the organization is soliciting proposals to help solve some of the more persistent problems.  Those include getting designating critical marine habitat and increasing salvage and oil spill response capabilities.

Another problem they're seeking to solve is getting adequate towing capacity in the Aleutians.  It's a critical part of responding to a maritime emergency, but the region is woefully lacking in ocean-going tugs.

Take for example the incident in December when the 650-foot cargo ship Morning Cedar lost control of its rudder and went adrift near Adak.  The Coast Guard cutter Sherman responded, but Captain Joe Hester said at the time that there was very little the cutter could have done if a storm had pushed the ship towards shore.

"You can see from here, look at the size of that thing and it's loaded up with lumber.  And then look at the size of us.  It's literally 15 times our weight.  That's a huge ship.  I cannot tow it.  I would damage my ship and get nowhere."

The nearest suitable tug would have taken more than a week to get to Adak from Seattle.  In the Morning Cedar’s case, the Coast Guard helicoptered technicians out to the ship and they were able to repair the rudder.  But the advisory panel is looking for some less ad-hoc solutions to the tug problem and others.

More information about the request for proposals is available at http://www.aleutiansriskassessment.com.  The deadline for submission is May 2, 2012.