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.”
Water levels remain cooperative across the system: Lake Superior sits 0.70 feet above Low Water Datum, and Erie and Ontario are running well above normal at 1.90 and 2.01 feet respectively. Modest winds across Michigan and Huron should ease navigation today, though a frontal system moving into Erie and Ontario Tuesday evening may bring rougher conditions midweek.
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.