Marquette Harbor News

Shipments of iron ore on the Great Lakes totaled 5.9 million tons in November, an increase of 5.8 percent compared to a year ago. That increase finally pushed the year-to-date total ahead of 2013’s pace. Through November, shipments stand at 53,249,990 tons, an increase of 86,721 tons. While the increase is minute, the achievement is huge. The winter of 2013/2014 was the most brutal in decades. The U.S. Coast Guard started breaking ice on December 6, the earliest on record. Iron ore shipments slipped 20 percent in December and then plunged 37 percent in January. A few cargos moved in February, but one voyage that should have taken 50 hours stretched 10 days.

Coast Guard Cutters Morro Bay and Katmai Bay, homeported in Cleveland and Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., conducted ice breaking operations in Marquette, Mich., Sunday. The harbor breakout operations commenced following a difficult and lengthy escort that started in Duluth, Minn., and utilized satellite imagery to find openings in the ice. The crews’ efforts helped keep local mining operations open by allowing the commercial carriers Mesabi Miner and Kaye E. Barker to offload badly-needed coal to the power plant that is the sole supplier of electricity to the mines.