"If you can’t wait for warmer spring weather to get here, imagine how the Great Lakes shipping industry feels.
Ice is still plentiful on the lakes, but vessels have begun sailing, and icebreakers are hard at work clearing more routes.
The shipping industry held its rite of spring Thursday, celebrating the start of the navigation season for the St. Lawrence Seaway, which includes the Welland Canal. The canal links Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, allowing vessels to bypass Niagara Falls. The entire seaway stretches across Lake Ontario to Montreal.
It was a slow start to the Great Lakes shipping season for the second consecutive year. In fact, the seaway this year delayed its planned start by a week in the face of unfavorable conditions. This was the latest opening date since an April 2 opening in 1997.
Out on the lakes, freighters still have lots of ice to contend with, and they need every day they can get to deliver cargo to customers.
“The economy doesn’t know what the weather is like,” said Glen Nekvasil, vice president of the Lake Carriers’ Association, an Ohio-based group representing U.S.-flag vessel operators on the Great Lakes. No matter the conditions on the water, he said, steel mills need their iron ore and power plants need their coal. Lost time in a season can’t really be made up.
“The vessels are already running at their maximum safe horsepower,” he said.
Mother Nature needs to do her part, but icebreakers from both sides of the border are trying to expedite matters. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Research Laboratory reported Lake Erie was about 60 percent covered by ice, while Lake Ontario was down to about 20 percent.
While ice is once again plentiful on the Great Lakes, Mark Gill, director of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Vessel Traffic Services in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., said last year’s ice was thicker: about 3 to 4 feet, compared to 2 to 2.5 feet this year.
Even so, it’s been a taxing season for icebreakers. The U.S. Coast Guard’s heavy-duty Mackinaw was knocked out of service last weekend, but could be back in action as soon as Friday. With one member of its fleet undergoing an overhaul in Baltimore, the U.S. Coast Guard will have eight icebreakers plying the Great Lakes, once the Mackinaw returns to work.
The delay in opening the seaway gave icebreakers more time to clear paths for the vessels on the lakes, Gill said. “The bulk of the domestic U.S. and Canadian lakers are starting to come out this week.”
Nekvasil said he believes the icebreakers are doing their best, but said the Great Lakes need more icebreaking resources. He noted that ports east of Cleveland on Lake Erie still need help opening up.
The Canadian Coast Guard typically has two icebreakers assigned to the Great Lakes, but has brought in more vessels this year, said Carol Launderville, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.
A large number of winter storms in February, along with strong winds and low temperatures, contributed to the rapid development of thick ice, she said.
“Ice conditions are extremely challenging again this year,” she said. For example, severe ice in Lake Erie prevented access to some ports and forced icebreakers and commercial vessels to change their sail plans.
So far, two Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers have completed over 180 escorts of commercial ships between Lake Erie and Lake Superior, Launderville said. That number will rise with the seaway open and the locks at Sault Ste. Marie also open.
Terence Bowles, president and CEO of the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., said he hoped the seaway could match last year’s results, when 40 million tons of cargo were shipped on the waterway. “Tonnage forecasts are always difficult, especially with continued volatility in the global economy,” he said in a statement."
By Matt Glynn, Buffalo News Business Reporter