Ice Breakers Still Working to Clear Great Lakes

Ice conditions for the Great Lakes are still pretty severe, particularly for Lake Superior with 83.2 percent of the surface still frozen according to analysis reports from the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. Total ice coverage on the Lakes as of April 9 is 58.6 percent. With shipping season officially underway in the St. Mary’s River, it will be about two weeks until iron ore freighters can cross Lake Superior-Huron without the assistance of icebreakers, according to Mark Gill, director of vessel traffic service for the U.S. Coast Guard in Sault Ste. Marie.