SAULT SAINTE MARIE, MI (WTAQ) – The Coast Guard is preparing the fleet to keep waterways open in the Great Lakes this winter.
Ice is expected to begin causing problems for commercial vessels across the Great Lakes region in the coming days. Mark Gill, the Director of Vessel Traffic Service for the Coast Guard in Sault St Marie, says they’re ready to clear the way.
“This year it’s been a little bit warmer than normal and the weather has been in our favor in that we’ve seen a delay in the development of ice. But over the course of the next 4 to 5 days, winter will arrive and we’re going to start to see waterways start to freeze over,” Gill told WTAQ News. “Between the U. S. and the Canadians, we have a total of 11 icebreaking ships. There are literally, on any given day, 70 to 80 vessels that require an ice breaker. So we just don’t have enough icebreakers to go around.”
However, a strategic zonal defense against the ice is in place. Larger ice breakers will take on major waterways, like the Detroit and St. Clair River system, the Straights of Mackinaw, and others. While the smaller vessels will tackle ice in tributaries like Green Bay, Saginaw Bay, and even down into places like the Fox and Menominee Rivers.
“The largest assets basically work in the highway system and then our smaller ice breakers are kind of work in the county roads and the side streets up to – if you’re gonna use the analogy for snow removal, your driveway, where a facility would be the driveway,” Gill explained.
Even through the winter, major commodities like commercial grade salt used on roads, fuel, oil, diesel, and airplane fuels are transported through the Great Lakes system. And while taking the winter off to avoid ice wouldn’t make a huge dent in national markets, more localized economies would take a major hit.
“3-percent of this country’s GDP is generated through commerce the raw materials that are moved about the Great Lakes every year…3-percent of GDP, if you were to sit on that, it’s not gonna really move the commodities market,” Gill said. “It is significant for the Great Lakes economy. The 8 Great Lakes states and the 2 provinces of Canada. over 55-percent of those regional economies rely heavily on Great Lakes shipping.”
But breaking up ice and being the lead-blocker for commercial vessels isn’t the only concern for those operating the ships. They also have to take regular people into consideration as thickening ice draws people further out for ice-related activities.
“There’s a kind of a delicate dance between us trying to move commercial shippers across the Great Lakes and also trying to steer clear of some of these recreational use areas…Anyone that’s going to recreate on the ice, we want them to steer clear of the major waterways. When the ice is thick, you can go right up to the channel and sometimes in two can interact – shipping and recreation can interact in close proximity, but we don’t recommend that,” Gill said. “People who venture out on the ice should know that ice breakers are actively out there breaking it. That weakens the ice and can create instability in the fields that they hope to fish on and recreate on…Pay attention to what’s going on. Listen to the marine radio. We advertise very loudly where we’re going to be, not only from ship’s whistles and sound signals, but also by radio.”
Ice breaking doesn’t last all winter long, however. Ice breaking activity tends to camp down during the middle of the winter, which Gill says usually lasts from mid-January through February. That comes as the need for commodities dwindles while the Sioux locks remain closed. Activity will return around the second week of March, where the Coast Guard will send out further notifications about plans to shatter large pieces of ice ahead of spring to melt it quicker – and facilitate movement of commodities once again.
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