DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — This year’s shipping season is getting
off to a slow start due to record levels of ice on the Great Lakes,
including ice that’s five feet thick in some parts of the Duluth harbor.
Coast
Guard cutters and local tugs are working hard to break up the ice, but
maps from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed
that as of last week, 90 percent of Lake Superior was still covered by
ice. That’s down from a peak of 95 percent earlier this year.
"Because
of the severe ice conditions, several fleets have delayed their first
sailing until early April," Jim Sharrow, with the Duluth Seaway Port
Authority, told KSTP-TV.
Nine Coast Guard cutters across the Great
Lakes are prepared to clear channels and escort ships, and two more
cutters are on the way from Canada, Sharrow said.
While the ice is
good business for civilians who operate ice-breaking tugs, Lake
Carriers’ Association Vice President Glen Nekvasil told Minnesota Public
Radio News that it’s bad for the shipping industry. Nekvasil said heavy
ice has prevented some cargo from being delivered and delayed some
trips by several days.
"We fully expect that transit times will be
two to three times their normal length, and that the Coast Guard
(cutters) will be leading convoys across Lake Superior in the
beginning," he said.
Sharrow said this means that after a ship is
loaded with taconite pellets in Two Harbors, it will have to wait at
port for other ships to load.
"So it may represent an extra two or
three day delay before they can even leave their loading port or
unloading port," he said. "It adds up quickly, when you get to five to
six days, you’ve lost an entire cargo for the season."
The iron ore trade was down 35 percent in January.
The
Helen H is one civilian tug working hard to break up the ice. Capt.
Mike Ojard, who has spent all of his 68 years among the tugs on the
North Shore of Lake Superior, said this is the worst ice on the lake in
20 years.
"Last year we were breaking ice on the 4th of May. This
year will be worse. There’s a lot of slips that will have to be opened
up later in the season," he told MPR News. "I’m sure we’ll have ice with
us way into June."
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