With the vast expanse of oceans and seas, it would have been possible to have numerous shipping routes. However trade shipping is concentrated on some fixed routes over which the majority of freight is carried. These routes have developed over time and are influenced by coasts, winds, marine currents, depths, reefs, ice and also political boundaries.
Short description of important sea routes are as follows.
- North Atlantic Route: This is among the most important and busiest shipping routes. It links Europe with Canada and United States. The cargo usually comprises of food products, raw material for industrial use and manufactured products.
- Mediterranean-Red Sea-Indian Ocean Route: This route connects Europe, Mediterranean, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The cargo on this route comprises of variety of commodities as cotton, tea, rubber, wool, dairy products, meat and most significantly petroleum from Middle East.
- Cape Route: This connects Western Europe, Africa and Australia via the Cape of Good Hope. The cargo comprises of manufactured articles, fruits, wines, wool, wheat, tobacco and meat.
- South Atlantic Route: This route connects South America with North-western Europe and the Mediterranean. The cargo primarily has coal, machinery and manufactured goods moving to South America and raw materials and food stuffs as meat, coffee and fruits get transported on the return voyage.
- Panama Route: It links eastern and Western United States, Western Canada and Chile. The Panama Canal provides a short cut against several thousand kilometers around Cape Horn.
- Baltic Sea Route: The Baltic Sea is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe and Danish Islands. It is linked to the White Sea by the White Sea Canal and to the North Sea by Kiel Canal. It is the main trade route for export of oil from Russia.
- Northern Sea Route: The Northern Sea Route or NSR cannot be thought of as one clearly defined linear route, but should instead be thought of as the whole sea area north of Russia. Due to the highly variable and difficult ice conditions present along most of the NSR, the optimal route choice for vessels navigating the NSR will vary. From the map of the world it is evident that NSR can offer great savings in distance. In theory, the savings in distance can be as high as 50% compared to the currently used shipping lanes via Suez or Panama. Ice has however an insurmountable obstacle to commercial transit traffic is but recent strong scientific evidence has shown that the Arctic ice cover is diminishing, both in thickness and extension due to climate change. If the current trends continue, the NSR will probably become a commercially viable transit route eventually. This has rekindled a new wave of interest in the potential of Arctic shipping routes.
- Indian Ocean Route: Trans-Indian ocean traffic is dominantly intermediary traffic between Pacific Asia and Europe, implying a series of more clearly defined routes, namely between the Strait of Malacca and Bab el-Mandab.
- North Pacific Route: In the North Pacific, a great circle route from Seattle, Washington, to Yokohama, Japan passes through Unimak Pass and the western Aleutian Islands. It basically links the west coast of United States with the Far East.