CNN’s Ted Rowlands details the record breaking percentage of ice covering Lake Michigan.
Ice cover in Lake Michigan is the most in 35 years. The ship transport season is about to begin, and the USCG Mobile Bay will head south through the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal instead of ice -covered Green Bay to begin operations in Lake Michigan.
The United States Coast Guard Mobile Bay (WTGB-103), based in Sturgeon Bay, is an active ice cutting Tug specifically designed to carry out ice cutting missions. The tug can proceed through fresh water ice up to 20 inches thick, and break ice up to 3 feetthick, by ramming the ice. The Mobile Bay is equipped with a system to lubricate their progress through the ice, by bubbling air through the hull.
The Mobile Bay is also involved in Search and Rescue, Environmental Pollution Response, Maritime Law Enforcement and Homeland Security.
Ironically, there is another cutter tug named USCGC Sturgeon Bay that is commissioned as a tug and icebreaker in Bayonne, New Jersey
Sturgeon Bay is responsible for providing Search and Rescue capabilities to the ice-covered areas in New York City and the Hudson Valley, as well as throughout coastal New England. The cutter also facilitates the safe navigation of commercial product, including gasoline and heating oil, through the ice-choked Hudson River from New York City to Albany.
See also …
www.uscg.mil/d1/cgcSturgeonBay/
www.uscg.mil/datasheet/140wtgb.asp
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