As I recall,
a number of years ago, arctic winds had pushed the pack ice into some of the summer shipping lanes and narrow channels, interfering with navigation. The argument was being made that this was evidence that the pack ice was getting thicker and that the overall decline in ice was reversing. I made basically the same data based observation that hank has made on this board (far more eloquently than I have) that total coverage is a good data set that mirrors the volumetric data, which is more difficult to calculate, and since it is not always direct observation, is often subject to argument.