In a meeting of the IMO, the UN agency that regulates shipping, on how to reduce underwater ship noise, Inuit Circumpolar Council vice-president Lisa Koperqualuk made an intervention on behalf of the ICC to ensure that any plan to reduce the noise will take Indigenous knowledge into account. Her suggestion was adopted, Nunatsiaq News reports.

This intervention is the first time the ICC have made a change on IMO policy since becoming an official member of the organization through provisional status.

The IMO is revisiting guidelines to reduce underwater shipping noise that it made in 2014. The recommendations for new guidelines will be due in 2023.

Underwater noise is a growing problem in Arctic waterways. In 2020, the Arctic Council issued a report that found that ship traffic in Arctic waters has increased considerably. Through 2013 to 2019 the number of ships operating in the Arctic increased by 25 per cent and the distances travelled increased by 75 per cent, according to the report.

This rise in ship traffic coincides with melting sea ice.