Shipping vessels have been passing through the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie with little resistance from ice during the opening days of the Great Lakes shipping season.
For Mark Gill, head of vessel traffic for the U.S. Coast Guard in Sault Ste. Mare, this is normally peak ice breaking season on Lake Superior to help ships avoid delays.
"Normally, Whitefish Bay, eastern end of Lake Superior and the upper river are 100% covered with ice," said Gill. "This year, that's not the case. Whitefish Bay was maybe 50% filled with ice."
So far this year, Gill says ice cover on the Great Lakes peaked during the second week in February with just 22% of the Great Lakes showing ice cover. Right now, just 6% of all the Great Lakes have ice cover.
"We normally peek the third week of March at 45% of Great Lakes covered by ice," said Gill. "So this year, a down year on ice percentage, percentage of coverage and thickness."
The Edwin H. Gott was the first commercial shipping vessel through the Soo Locks on Saturday to mark the start of the Great Lakes navigation season.
Gott traveled to Minnesota to pick up taconite, a raw material used to make steel.
Carrie Fox is the public affairs chief for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in Sault Ste. Marie. She said the maintenance of the Poe Lock is critical to national security.
"A 2015 Department of Homeland Security study estimates in six months a Poe Lock closure would temporarily reduce the US gross domestic product GDP by $1.1 trillion dollars resulting in a loss of 11 million jobs," said Fox.
