Correction: Corrected September 17, 2026: the water-level paragraph was withdrawn because this imported legacy edition does not retain its underlying gauge snapshot. Its numerical readings and navigation implications are unverified. NOAA measurement context.
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The 2026 Great Lakes shipping season is officially underway, but winter isn’t letting go without a fight. The MV Kathy McKeil became the first vessel to reach Thunder Bay when she passed the breakwall at 3:23 p.m. on March 26, marking the ceremonial start at Canada’s busiest grain port. But just hours later, the Soo Locks, which opened for traffic early Wednesday morning, faced one of the season’s biggest tests: thick ice blocking passage between Lakes Superior and Huron.
As of Sunday morning, vessels were backed up in Whitefish Bay waiting to transit south. The downbound Edgar B. Speer, Edwin H. Gott, and John G. Munson were moving through ice near Sault Ste. Marie with help from the Canadian Coast Guard Cutter Vincent Massey, while upbound traffic remained stopped. The U.S. Coast Guard is operating with two of nine American icebreakers down for repair, a shortage that adds pressure to what Coast Guard waterways specialist Brian Smicklas called “a challenging spring, more challenging than in recent history.”
The original water-level paragraph has been withdrawn. This legacy edition was imported from a WordPress draft without the underlying gauge snapshot, so its numerical readings and navigation implications cannot be verified from the archived source data.
Meanwhile, at Bayship in Sturgeon Bay, the Edgar B. Speer continues her major overhaul with new MAN diesel engines being installed, a sign that even as the fleet pushes forward, modernization of aging vessels continues behind the scenes.