Great Lakes Coast News

On the two-year anniversary of a tragic boating accident near Sandusky, Ohio, the U.S. Coast Guard is reminding Great Lakes boaters who may be thinking about venturing out on the area's lakes and rivers to consider that the water remains dangerously cold despite warming air temperatures. At the start of spring each year, Great Lakes Coast Guard crews respond to dozens of cold water accidents involving boaters lured to the lakes by warm air temperatures, and these frequently result in hypothermia and death. April 6, 2013, a father and his 12-year-old daughter went kayaking in Sandusky Bay. A friend reported them missing the following morning when the pair failed to return. They were last seen wearing sweatpants and hoodies with no life jackets.

Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary  crews across the Great Lakes rescued 9 people during multiple cases from different locations across the Coast Guard 9th District Saturday. The names of those rescued are not being released and there is no imagery or video for any of the cases. Among other cases, watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Buffalo, New York, received a report just after 10:30 a.m. of two people in the water near Lock 5 in the Oswego River in Oswego, New York, during a kayaking event. A Coast Guard Auxiliary crew was in the area doing a safety patrol for the event. The crew and a local fire department boat retrieved both of the people from the water and took them to shore. It is unknown if they were wearing life jackets and there were no injuries or medical concerns reported.

Two men are rescued after their snowmobiles crashed through the ice about a mile offshore on Saginaw Bay near Bay City, Mich., and meanwhile the Coast Guard continue their efforts to keep the users of the ice-bound Great Lakes safe by gathering ice depth data. Personnel at Coast Guard Station Saginaw River, in Essexville, Mich., received a night-time call from Bay County 911 dispatch stating that two people had broken through the ice. The county dispatch told the individuals to remain on site so their location could be determined based on the cell phone information.

In anticipation of the coming ice season and to ensure the safety of vessels transiting the Great Lakes Basin, earlier this week the Coast Guard 9th District began its annual retrieval of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway System seasonal aids to navigation, the largest domestic ATON recovery operation in the U.S. Operation Fall Retrieve, which affects lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons, commenced Tuesday with a goal of retrieving 1,278 navigational aids. The operation is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 28.

1798- Hostilities began in the Quasi-War with France. The Revenue Cutters Pickering, Virginia,Scammel, South Carolina, Governor, Jay, Eagle, General Greene, and Diligence were the first to be placed under Naval orders, comprising about one-third of the U .S. Fleet. 1801- In a cost saving measure, the Treasury Department sent circulars to the various Collectors looking toward reducing the size of the cutters and their crews. 1838- Under the authority of an Act of Congress passed this date, the President divided the Atlantic coast into six, and the Great Lakes coast into two, lighthouse districts. A naval officer was detailed to each lighthouse district…