U.S. Coast Guard wraps up another icebreaking season after long, severe winter
This is a reproduction of an article that first appeared on Sixty Degrees North. If you would like to read more posts by Peter Rybski, you can sign up for his blog here.
From a May 8, 2026, U.S. Coast Guard press release:
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard concluded all domestic icebreaking operations in America’s Eastern and Great Lakes waterways, Thursday, following a severe winter season that continued well into spring in some regions.
Austere conditions and ice buildup that accrued after storms such as Winter Storm Fern required persistent efforts from our underway crews and assets. Coast Guard teams and partners maintained the majority of a navigable Marine Transportation System to support maritime shipping of vital products such as fuel to power plants in the mid-Atlantic, critical iron ore in the Great Lakes and home heating oil in New England.
Throughout the icebreaking season, approximately 6,940 domestic ice breaking hours were provided by more than 30 Coast Guard cutters and boats to directly assist or enable the transit of 981 vessels while maintaining critical waterways availability.
An article over a gCaptain by Lori Ann LaRocco provides some additional information:
Ice conditions in the Chesapeake and Mid-Atlantic waterways were categorized as “significantly above normal” compared to recent decades. Operations wrapped up on Thursday. The USCG estimated that more than 50 million tons of ice were broken this winter, which was characterized by “historic cold temperatures and icing conditions.”
“Peak ice coverage in the Chesapeake Bay reached over 35 percent, which is the most since 2014 and greatly exceeds the seasonal average of around 10 percent,” said Lt. Cdr. Blake Bonifas, Atlantic Area Public Affairs Officer.
Bonifas told gCaptain that more than 600 nautical miles were impacted by ice on the Detroit River, St. Marys River, Straits of Mackinac, Hudson River, and Chesapeake Bay.
Total ice coverage on the Great Lakes reached a seven-year high of 58 percent on February 9, exceeding the long-term average of 52 percent.
Rapid ice accumulation was also a major problem this winter.
Within two weeks, the USCG saw ice coverage expand from 5 percent on January 14 to a whopping 51 percent by January 31. Lake Erie reached 95 percent ice coverage.
Great Lakes/Operation Taconite
I wrote about Operation Taconite during the season when the locks are closed in the January article. During the spring breakout season, Taconite focuses on the Straits of Mackinac, Whitefish Bay, and the St. Marys River, but can also extend further into Lake Superior.
Here is how the spring break-out season works, paraphrased and updated from a lengthy description put out several years ago by the U.S. Coast Guard:
The Soo locks are on the St. Mary’s River, which separate Lake Superior from Lake Huron. The locks open for Spring on March 25th, but the Coast Guard begins preparing tracks in the St. Mary’s River about ten days before that. About 2-4 days before the scheduled opening, CCG Mackinaw transits north through the locks to prepare tracks from Lake Superior through Whitefish Bay and the upper St. Mary’s River. About the same time, an icebreaking buoy tender starts opening up the Duluth harbor.
Soon after the locks open, the Coast Guard opens the West Neebish Channel, after which the islanders have to use a ferry. This channel has a greater depth and is needed for downbound transits of heavily laden vessels.
Ice conditions can vary greatly. Often, there is thick ice in Whitefish Bay while portions of the river are open water because of the current. The Coast Guard must practice careful ice management, which means controlling the flow of the ice to allow for safe navigation. Sometimes, they allow “ice dams” to hold back ice, while in other parts of the river (especially the lower portions) they try to flush the ice to Lake Huron.
Canadian icebreakers also assist, even though they are not officially part of Operation Taconite and often prioritize Canadian ports, such as Thunder Bay.
Like in the Baltic, warming weather and winds can create dangerous conditions. Ships can become trapped in moving ice plates and quickly pushed aground. This is also a danger in the Straits of Mackinac. When the ice no longer poses a threat to navigation, Operation Taconite ends.
2026 Spring Breakout
Note: For a complete list of available icebreaking assets available for Operation Taconite 2026, see the end of the article.
Although the U.S. Coast Guard has nine icebreakers and icebreaking buoy tenders stationed on the Great Lakes, only seven of them were available. According to WCMU, one Bay-class icebreaking tug and one ice-capable buoy tender were unavailable due to required maintenance.
Additionally, Mackinaw suffered from a bow thruster problem and had to be kept south of the Soo Locks. This created quite the challenge. According to the Lake Carrier’s Association (as quoted in a Workboat article):
U.S. shippers lost a total of 1,953 hours or 82 ship days due to limited icebreaking capabilities on the lakes. According to the Lake Carriers’ Association, which represents the U.S.-flag Great Lakes fleet, that amounts to about a third of the entire shipping season, marked by the opening and closing of the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.
When the locks opened March 25, though, it took 96 hours for the first vessel, loaded with iron ore, to pass through the St. Marys River due to icy conditions on the waterway and inadequate icebreaker availability. According to LCA, as many as 19 vessels were stopped at one point due to ice in the vicinity of the Soo Locks.
This past ice season put a spotlight on the U.S. Coast Guard’s aging domestic icebreaker fleet, said Eric Peace, vice president of the Lake Carriers’ Association. The Coast Guard’s lone domestic heavy icebreaker, the Mackinaw, spent the ice season below the Soo Locks, unable to transit the locks due to a bow thruster casualty, Peace said. That left the icebreaking job above the locks to the Coast Guard cutter Spar.
“The Spar was a constant above the locks but just not as capable as a heavy icebreaker (she is an ice capable buoy tender and not a true icebreaker),” Peace said. “We did have the Canadians for a while, which included the Vincent Massey and Risley, but they were slave to Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Canadians measure their success differently, using an eight-hour response time to anywhere on the lakes, while the U.S. Coast Guard uses open waterway measurements. So while the U.S. Coast Guard was dedicated to the shared waterway, the Canadians had to work Canadian vessels and ports, per their measurements.”
The LCA also repeated their usual criticism of the USA-Canada icebreaking arrangement:
Peace noted that Canada also charges a flat fee for icebreaking services between December 21 and April 15 for all vessels calling on Canadian ports.
“That means that, if a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker escorts a U.S. ship into a Canadian port, the U.S. shipping company has to pay the Canadian government,” he said. “It also means that, even if you had no icebreaker escort or even no ice, you still have to pay the Canadian government.”
At the same time, Canadian lakers have free access to the Soo Locks, Peace said.
Operation RENEW (Reliable Energy for Northeast Winters)
U.S. Coast Guard vessels, such as the 65’ harbor tug Cleat, also supported Operation RENEW. RENEW keeps shipping lanes open from Maine to New Jersey for essential goods and services, especially home heating oil and other petroleum products.
East District Icebreaking
Icebreaking in early 2026 extended to the Mid-Atlantic region, with icebreaking operations required on Curtis Creek, Maryland, along the Delaware River, and in the Chesapeake Bay using small tugboats and buoy tenders.
Domestic Icebreaker Acquisition Plans
As I wrote about in December, the U.S. Coast Guard has Requests for Information out for domestic icebreakers, called Homeland Security Cutters (HSCs):
- One HSC-Heavy (capabilities similar to Mackinaw)
- Eleven HSC-Mediums (to replace the aging Bay-class icebreaking tugs)
- Seven HSC-Lights (to replace the 65’ icebreaking tugs and 49’ BUSLs)
Although $816 million was allocated for light and medium icebreaking cutters in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” for light and medium icebreaking cutters (in addition to the Polar Security and Arctic Security Cutters), the timeline for their acquisition is not clear.
Additionally, the U.S. Coast Guard’s 2027 Unfunded Priorities List contains a $74 million request for “long-lead time material and program management for a second Great Lakes Icebreaker,” probably the HSC-Heavy.
Thoughts and Comments
First, I think it is important that we appreciate the hard work done by the men and women who work to keep these sea lanes open and vessels safe during these challenging conditions, often with older and outdated equipment. Well done!
Although this article focused on the U.S. Coast Guard, I know that the Canadian Coast Guard was active in the St. Lawrence Seaway and other locations. However, I could not find a good overview of the operations and did not have time to put together an overview from the details available. If you know of a good location for such information, please let me know!
Icebreakers continue to be in the news, as it was a tough icebreaking season in the Baltic Sea and in North America. Many nations have plans to expand or update their domestic icebreaking fleets, but there is quite a bit of work between planning and delivery.
Sixty Degrees North will be following these programs closely. If you liked this article, be sure to click on the like button. Subscribe so you don’t miss an update. And do share with friends of colleagues who might be interested in learning about icebreakers.
I will have a couple of non-icebreaking articles coming soon as well for my subscribers who are also interested in what life is like in Finland.
Until next time—
All the Best,
PGR
Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Arctic Today.
Peter Rybski is a retired U.S. Naval Officer based in Finland who now works for Davie Group. The opinions expressed in this blog belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Davie Group.
