Coast Guard begins ice breaking operations in western Great Lakes

SAULT SAINTE MARIE, Mich. –   December 6, 2010   ----  The U.S. Coast Guard commenced Operation Taconite this afternoon in response to colder temperatures and the resultant ice growth in the western Great Lakes region.

Operation Taconite is the Coast Guard’s largest domestic icebreaking operation, encompassing Lake Superior, St. Mary’s River, the Straits of Mackinac, and northern Lake Huron. 

As a result of the operation, certain waterways may close once due consideration is given to the protection of the marine environment, waterway improvements, aids to navigation, the need for cross-channel traffic (e.g. ferries), the availability of icebreakers, and the safety of the island residents, who in the course of their daily business use naturally formed ice bridges for transportation to and from the mainland.  read more .....>

Coast Guard Cutter Morro Bay heads to Great Lakes

NEW YORK --   November 24, 2010  ---   A Connecticut-based Coast Guard cutter is scheduled to deploy to the Great Lakes Nov. 29, 2010, to assist in the service's icebreaking mission there throughout the winter months.

The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Morro Bay, an 140-foot icebreaking tug, will arrive in the Great Lakes region a few weeks after it departs its homeport of New London, Conn.

While there, the crew will assist those of other Coast Guard icebreakers during Operations Coal Shovel and Taconite, the largest domestic ice breaking operations in the country. The Coast Guard conducts domestic ice breaking to aid in search and rescue and other emergency operations, mitigate flooding, and to meet the reasonable demands of commerce.
Ice breaking on the Great Lakes is vital to keeping shipping lanes open. Large quantities of steel, coal, heating oil and grain ships throughout the region, and Coast Guard ice breaking services enable these shippers to transport an average of $2 billion worth of cargo each year.   read more......>

 Retrieval of the Great Lakes navigation aids

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich.  November 14, 2010  ---   In anticipation of the coming ice season and to ensure the safety of vessels transiting the Great Lakes Basin, the Ninth Coast Guard District has begun its annual retrieval of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway System seasonal aids to navigation, the largest domestic aids to navigation recovery operation in the United States.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Benjamin Gaines, a deck-crewmember aboard USCGC Buckthorn, orders a buoy into place during Operation Fall Retrieve on Nov. 23, 2009. Operation Fall Retrieve, which includes lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons, commenced Oct. 14, 2009, with a goal of retrieving 1,284 navigational aids, and should be completed by Dec. 21, 2009. The aids, approximately half in the region, are taken out of service during the winter months due to decreased vessel traffic and to minimize damage from ice and inclement weather.  read more.....>

Port of Duluth west to Alberta by CP rail

Duluth, Minn. USA –  November 14, 2010   --- This week marked a milestone in project cargo movement at the Head of the Lakes as crews handled the heaviest Canadian Pacific (CP) direct, single-line rail move from the Port of Duluth-Superior to western Canada.  

Two, 300-ton dimensional transformers arrived at the Clure Public Marine Terminal in Duluth on Friday, Nov. 5. Both units were manufactured in Germany and shipped from Rotterdam aboard the BigLift freighter Tracer, along with multiple crates of accessories. Crews from Lake Superior Warehousing Co. discharged the high/wide/ heavy cargo directly onto specialized railcars waiting dockside   read more......>

 Gales of November Celebrates & Explores Lake Superior Maritime Heritage

DULUTH, MN ---  October 22, 2010   ----  The two day educational, fundraising and networking event begins Friday, November 12 with a joint luncheon with the Duluth-Superior Propeller Club at Grandma’s Sports Garden.  The keynote speaker, Pat Labadie, former Museum Director of the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center (from 1973-2000,) will present “Shedding New Light on Maritime History.”  Various area tour options follow lunch and the day concludes with an Opening Gala reception, sponsored by Lake Superior Magazine, at the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center in historic Canal Park.

Saturday, November 13 festivities, all held at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, begin at 8:30 a.m.  The day is filled with maritime related educational breakout presentations, a mini trade show, silent auction, and an opportunity to enter to win the Cruise of a Lifetime raffle.  Saturday’s keynote luncheon presentation, “Full Circle Tour:  A Journey Around the Greatest Lake,” will feature presenters Mike Link and Kate Crowley   read more.....>

The real grain story

THUNDER BAY, ON   ----  October 12, 2010  -----   The funding announcement ignored totally, the problems and low employment levels that these employees are experiencing largely because of the grain distribution practices employed by a legal monopoly…the Canadian Wheat Board. It is true that CWB practice does bestow health on Mission Terminals but it is coming close to destroying the traditional base of Thunder Bay grain handling.

Thunder Bay’s municipal, provincial and federal politicians need to ask how monopolistic practices can be allowed to exist in a capitalist economy and if they are allowed to continue, how can they be monitored and controlled so that any collateral damage to Thunder Bay companies can be limited?

The photo caption reads, “The Algonorth loads at the Agricore United Elevator.” This item and the item on funding for expansion at Mission Terminal (front page, Oct. 2 The Chronicle JOurnal) illustrate a problem that we, as employees of the other four grain companies that make up the traditional base of Thunder Bay’s grain trade, see daily — i.e., diminishing work hours and job numbers in Thunder Bay’s grain business.   read more.....>

 Wheat Exports Along USA Seaway Set for Busy Fall Season

THUNDER BAY, ON  ------  September 9, 2010 – Grain shipments through the St. Lawrence Seaway increased by 51 percent to 830,000 metric tons in August compared to the same period last year as international demand began to ramp up in the wake of production shortages in Russia.

 The St. Lawrence Seaway reported that American grain shipments reached 303,000 metric tons in August, an increase of 62 percent compared to the same period last year, while Canadian grain shipments increased by 45 percent to 527,000 metric tons. Year-to-date numbers, however, reflect an 18 percent increase to 743,000 metric tons for U.S. grain shipments and a 15 percent decrease to 2.8 million metric tons for Canadian grain shipments from March 25 to August 31compared to the same period in 2009.   read more......>

 Port of Thunder Bay as a true Gateway to Western Canada

THUNDER BAY, ON   ---    September 3, 2010  ----  As the largest grain port in the world, and still having the largest grain storage in North America today, the Port of Thunder Bay has a magnificent history that has served its citizens and the region well. As a Grain Handler for Cargill Grain in the late seventies, I remember with fond memories the salties lined up to load grain destined to various parts of the world. At any one time, one could see from Hillcrest Park at least a dozen if not more ships waiting their turn in the harbour. What a sight! Could we make that happen again? 

We still have those capacities, but the world has changed and the port is trying to diversify into new markets and new products. Thunder Bay was one of Canada’s major grain ports, but declined due to regulatory requirements that increased costs and made the port less competitive vis-a-vis the railway and other transportation corridors on the western grain port terminals like Prince Rupert, Vancouver, and Churchill. We do however have a competitive advantage through a direct rail access to both national railways, something that few ports in North America can claim of having. But will that be enough? What else is needed?   read more......>

Step Closer to Permanent Fix of Lakes Dredging Crisis

DULUTH, MN ---- July 30, 2010  --– The end of the crippling dredging crisis on the Great Lakes moved a giant step closer today when a key House committee approved legislation requiring the federal government to spend all the tax dollars it collects for dredging on dredging rather than use nearly half to balance the budget - at least on paper. 

Section 2007 of H.R. 5892, the Water Resources Development Act of 2010, mandates that all tax revenues annually deposited in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (“HMTF”) be used to dredge the nation’s deep-draft ports and waterways.  Because the government does not spend all the tax dollars it raises for dredging, the HMTF currently has a surplus of more than $5 billion   read more....>

Federal Elbe is first saltie; First Ship Ceremony held today

April 8, 2010 - Duluth, Minn – The Duluth Seaway Port Authority hosted a “First Ship Ceremony” aboard the Federal Elbe today, Wed., April 7, at 1 p.m. to welcome Captain Darius Malinowski and his crew to the Port of Duluth-Superior. The ship – the first “saltie” of the 2010 navigation season to have transited the full Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System – is docked and loading grain at the CHS terminal in Superior, Wis. read more...>

NEW EVIDENCE ABOUT SINKING OF EDMUND FITZGERALD

THUNDER BAY, ON  ----   March 29, 2010  -----   The exciting new yap films television series, DIVE DETECTIVES, launches on History Television in Canada on Wednesday, March 31 at 6:00 pm ET/PT (repeated at 11:00 pm ET/PT) with the episode The Edmund Fitzgerald. This premiere episode reveals new evidence that dramatically changes the accepted version of events relating to the sinking of the US freighter on Lake Superior in 1975 – a saga made famous in Gordon Lightfoot’s iconic song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”.  read more.....>

8 Tall Ships  to Visit Duluth

THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO --- DULUTH, MN ----  March 23, 2010 ----  The American Sail Training Association has partnered with GREAT LAKES UNITED to bring a fleet of international tall ships to the Great Lakes, the world’s largest body of fresh water, as part of the Great Lakes United TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® 2010 race series. Join us as the tall ships race through all five Great Lakes making port appearances in cities throughout the US and Canada. Two important initiatives sail along with the tall ships: water conservation education and youth sail training!  read more......>

Duluth-Superior Shipping Season winds down; Last 3 lakers headed in for winter layup

DULUTH, MINN - January 14, 2010 – As the shipping winds down this week, the Port of Duluth-Superior, the Great Lakes, and the entire Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System are closing the books on one of the most difficult navigation seasons in the waterway’s history. The recession hammered the construction, automotive, steel and appliance industries in the U.S. and Canada reducing demand for raw materials. All sectors of the freight industry felt the ill effects, in particular, maritime. Read more...>

Duluth-Superior Harbor Corrosion Mechanism Identified

Duluth, Minn. USA –  November 24, 2009  -----  Long-awaited research findings just published identify one possible mechanism responsible for accelerated steel corrosion in the Duluth-Superior harbor. The peer-reviewed paper published in CORROSION, The Journal of Science and Engineering, outlines a study led by Brenda Little, Senior Scientist, Marine Molecular Processes, Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center. The study was supported by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, and the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.    read more.....>

"Intolerable” Abuse of Dredging Fund To End

Duluth, MN – April 19, 2010 - No more will ships leave Minnesota’s Great Lakes ports with less than full loads once Congress passes legislation introduced last week. Senate Bill 3213 requires the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (“HMTF”) to spend what it takes in each year rather than amass a surplus that is used to paper balance the federal budget.

The bill comes not a minute too soon for Minnesota Congressman James L. Oberstar (D), calling this misuse of funds “intolerable.” read more...>

New commissioner Duluth Seaway Port Authority

Duluth, Minn., U.S.A.  ------September 2, 2010 –--- Rick Revoir was recently appointed by the Duluth City Council to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority Board of Commissioners. He will complete the remaining two years of a six-year term held previously by Thomas A. Clure who passed away in May.

Since 2004, Revoir has been an assistant professor in the School of Business & Technology at the College of St. Scholastica, teaching both accounting and healthcare finance courses. He taught a personal finance course for four years in the College’s Dignitas first-year experience program and has led several study abroad trips to China.   read more......>

Coast Guard Cutter Alder returns from the Northwest Passage

DULUTH, MN ---  October 10, 2010  The Coast Guard Cutter Alder return home . following a 56-day deployment to the Canadian Arctic.

The Alder departed Duluth, Minn., July 12 for a two-month deployment in which the crew participated in Exercise NATSIQ 2010, a Canadian exercise, designed to improve the collective capacity of our Arctic allies to effectively respond to safety and security threats or emergencies in the Arctic.

Exercise NATSIQ involved forces from the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, as well as the Canadian navy and coast guard, and the Danish navy.   read more.....>