NASA/MODIS
Lake Superior Ice: March 28, 2014
Continued ice cover on Lake Superior this spring has hampered the start of the shipping season. The Soo Locks opened on March 25, but no laker has yet made it to the locks.
Ice slows start of the shipping season
The March 25 opening of the Soo Locks came and went – and as of Friday, no ships had yet locked through.
“We don’t expect any until the weekend,” says the Soo Locks’ Allan Frappier. “With the cold weather, it’s made for challenging times and working conditions. Even opening the locks was hard. … The MacArthur Lock is still down.”
Behind a trio of icebreakers, three lakers – the Cason J. Callaway, John G. Munson and Presque Isle – left the Twin Ports this week, utilizing the open water on the northerly route across Lake Superior. But on Friday the Presque Isle turned back near Thunder Bay.
Two of the icebreakers also returned to Duluth. The U.S. Coast Guard vessels Katmai Bay and Morro Bay were clearing shipping channels in Thunder Bay yesterday when a “mechanical failure on the Morro Bay forced the two ships to head back to Duluth by the afternoon,” reports TBNewsWatch.com. The cutter Alder, on its way Thunder Bay to help the smaller icebreakers break out the harbor, instead met the pair on Minnesota’s North Shore and towed its smaller counterpart into Duluth.
According to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, the heavy icebreaker Mackinaw, the Munson and the Callaway are currently mired in the extensive ice still choking the eastern half of the Lake.
The Great Lakes Fleet’s upbound Edwin H. Gott reached the lower St. Marys River on Thursday. Not far behind is the Stewart J. Cort. Both vessels will wait for favorable conditions and for the downbound lakers to lock through in Sault Ste. Marie before heading upriver to Lake Superior.
+ The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway system – of which Duluth is the western terminus – continued its slow awakening with the opening of the Welland Canal on Friday. The Montreal-St. Lawrence River portion of the seaway, which links the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, will open on March 31, three days later than originally scheduled.
+ Enter Visit Duluth’s First Ship Contest by March 31. Guess when the first oceangoing vessel will transit the entire system and pass under the Aerial Lift Bridge for a chance at several prize packages.
"Yooper" officially recognized
After a decade-long campaign by a resident of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, “yooper” has been added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. More from WLUC’s Jessica Stevenson.
Video picks
We spotted some spectacular videos this week:
+ A drone’s eye view of the Grand Marais, Minnesota, harbor.
+ Aboard the USCGC Alder, breaking ice in Duluth.
+ Huge slabs of lake ice pile up on the shore at Duluth’s Brighton Beach.
+ Rick Olivo, Ashland Daily Press: “Ashland City Council plans public hearing on ore dock future.”
+ In Michigan, “[c]raft beer drinkers and brewers will no doubt be lifting a pint in celebration of legislature that just became law,” reports ABC 10’s Kevin Terpstra.
+ The Portage Lake Lift Bridge, linking Houghton and Hancock in the Keweenaw, “will be receiving new lift cables, fresh paint in a few areas, as well as new security gates,” according to WLUC’s Dan Giroux.