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TURKISH JOURNAL OF FISHERIES AND AQUATIC SCIENCES, vol.24, pp.1-12, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
Arctic shipping routes attract increasing curiosity because of their potential to create profitable connections between East Asia and West Europe. However, there are many factors why this interest is not sufficiently reflected in the numbers. For this reason, in this article, the main obstacles to the development of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) as a significant shipping route covering Asia-Europe were evaluated using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM). The results indicate that economic viability (30.5%) is a critical challenge, with high operational costs and limited seasonal access undermining the NSR's competitiveness. Environmental and safety issues (29.6%) and ecological concerns (15.7%) also pose major risks due to unpredictable weather, insufficient search and rescue capabilities, reliance on icebreakers, and threats to fragile Arctic ecosystems. Infrastructure limitations (11.3%) and political and regulatory complexities (7.0%) further restrict usage, while limited international acceptance (5.9%) reflects the NSR's lack of integration into global supply chains. The financial nature of transportation is critical in terms of costs. Therefore, the economic viability barrier must be overcome first. It will require substantial investment, new regulations, and international cooperation to make NSR as a potential trade route.