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Paul L. Hayden / Lake Superior Magazine
USCGC Alder
The Coast Guard Cutter Alder breaking ice in the Twin Ports on Tuesday, March 10. The vessel spent the morning on Lake Superior.
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Paul L. Hayden / Lake Superior Magazine
USCGC Alder
The Coast Guard Cutter Alder breaking ice in the Twin Ports on Tuesday, March 10. The vessel spent the morning on Lake Superior.
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Boatnerd
USCGC Mackinaw WLBB-30
The Mackinaw will start breaking ice in Sturgeon Bay and the St. Marys River next week, ahead of the opening of the Soo Locks on March 25. In Duluth, the Alder began work in the harbor on Tuesday.
Ice-breaking has started on Lake Superior in preparation for the opening of the Soo Locks – and the start of the shipping season – on March 25. Following an extraordinary winter, it’ll be a challenge this year, says the U.S. Coast Guard.
“We’re in an ice condition that hasn’t been seen in at least 20-plus years,” says Randy Elliott, a vessel traffic manager with the U.S. Coast Guard in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. “And the near-term forecast [for more cold] in the spring is not going to give much relief.”
Ice cover on Lake Superior has hovered around 95 percent this week; on the Great Lakes as a whole, it’s 92.2 percent, not far from the 1979 record of 94.7 percent. Ice cover on each of lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior is now above 90 percent, something that hadn’t happened since 1994. On the St. Marys River, which connects Lake Superior to Huron, the ice is 40 inches thick in some places.
In the Duluth-Superior harbor, where 10 Great Lakes freighters wintered, the 225-foot cutter Alder started breaking ice earlier this week. On March 10, the 240-foot Mackinaw and several smaller icebreakers will tackle the eastern access to Lake Superior. After freeing up Sturgeon Bay, where several more freighters wintered, they’ll take on the Straits of Mackinac and Soo Locks area.
Even with the thick ice, Randy says the ice-breaking strategy will change only slightly. This year, the Coast Guard will have to use the Mackinaw and its bulk for much of the initial breaking, then let the smaller vessels clean up. The biggest difference will be time.
“Everything is going to take longer,” he says. “That’s pretty much going to be a given.”
The Soo Locks close to vessel traffic for the winter, but the St. Marys River stays open. Starting in late February, the 140-foot cutter Katmai Bay spent eight days clearing a path to Sault Ste. Marie for the tanker Algocanada. The trip normally takes six hours. The arrival of the Mackinaw next week will help; the continued cold will not.
“We’re still not hitting above freezing much at all,” Randy says. “The ice does tend to knit back together.”
Temperatures in the Soo aren’t expected to climb above freezing until mid-month. Overnight lows could even drop to near zero in the coming weeks.
The Soo Locks will open as scheduled on the 25th, but if the routes to the locks remain choked with ice, the number of vessels lined up for opening day may be shorter than usual.
An earlier version of this story included a photo of the icebreaker Mackinaw WAGB-83. Decommissioned in 2006 and now an excellent maritime museum, the Mac will not participate this winter. The newer Mackinaw WLBB-30 will lead ice-breaking efforts in the east. We regret the error.