US, Canada Coast Guards sign agreement, collaborating on Great Lakes ice breaking

GREAT LAKES — United States and Canadian Coast Guard sectors are teaming up to work on buoy tending and ice breaking operations throughout shared waters in the Great Lakes.

Coast Guard representatives from both countries came together to sign a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) earlier this month. This memorandum is a new agreement which includes some elements of previous agreements to coordinate efforts between the two groups.

The agreement will allow the two organizations will come together for efforts in ice breaking throughout the main waterways of the lakes, as well as connecting waters like the Georgian Bay, which connects to Lake Huron, and St. Lawrence River, which connects to Lake Ontario. The agreement will also allow for collaboration on buoy tending operations.

The agencies will now be able to tend to each others floating aids and share buoy tending resources, improving response times for aid outages or defects, reduce vessel transit times and cost, and decrease man hours.

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With the MOU in place, the agencies will better be able to collect data and help travelers from both countries.

The shared icebreaking operations will include exchange of personnel, reporting on the availability of icebreaking facilities, establishing constant means of communication, allocation of areas of operational mandate and other matters relevant to their cooperation and the coordination of their icebreaking operations.

“We’re thrilled to have been able to finalize this plan between the Canadian Coast Guard Central Region and the Ninth Coast Guard District to improve our efficiency with ice breaking and aids to navigation in the Great Lakes,” said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Jon Hickey. “A lot of time and hard work went into putting this MOU in place, and I look forward to seeing the Marine Transportation System in the Great Lakes region thrive as a result. I’m thankful for this partnership with the Canadian Coast Guard and can’t wait to see what more we can accomplish in the future.”

— Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: US, Canada Coast Guards sign ice breaking, buoy tending agreement