As the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System officially closes for the 2025 navigation season this week, ice buildup has created shipping delays leading up to the closure. Frozen waters caused serious delays for commercial vessel traffic across the Great Lakes. On January 4, 13 vessels had not yet passed through the final lock near Montreal, Québec. Ice impacted traffic in Duluth, Minnesota, the St Marys River in Michigan, the Straits of Mackinac, Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the western basin of Lake Erie, including ports in Toledo and Sandusky, Ohio. 

According to the Lake Carriers’ Association, the U.S. Coast Guard’s (USCG) only heavy icebreaker, MACKINAW has been missing in action along with several smaller, 140-foot icebreaking tugs and an ice capable buoy tender.  The quick onset of winter caused problems for both the USCG and the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) as they attempted to complete the annual removal of floating aids to navigation before ice damaged the buoys or moved them off station.  That mission impacted icebreaking, delaying many federal icebreaking assets from assisting commercial traffic through ice that has formed across the Great Lakes.    

Leading up to the end of the navigation season, the CCG had not assisted with Great Lakes icebreaking efforts, stated the Lake Carriers’ Association. Two CCG icebreakers have been working in the St Lawrence Seaway around Montreal while a third has an engineering problem and remains at the dock in Sarnia, Ontario. In addition, U.S. ships calling on Canadian ports were being charged an icebreaking fee despite no icebreaker assistance. 

“The U.S. Coast Guard is focused on their acquisition of Arctic Security Cutters, yet they can’t even keep our internal domestic waters open. This is a major national security problem if steel mills in the United States cannot have a reliable supply chain during the winter,” said Jim Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers’ Association. “We need the CCG to do their share, another heavy USCG icebreaker and we need to replace the smaller 40-plus year-old icebreaking tugs.”