Why We Need the Seaway to Close in Winter

January 5th marks the official closing of the St. Lawrence Seaway from Lake Ontario to Montreal for commercial-sized bulk carriers. In the past, this was necessary because even large ships could not break through the ice that formed over the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. However, with less ice coverage in the winter the last several years, there are still important reasons why the Seaway needs to be shut down during colder months.

• During this time of year, the water levels of the St. Lawrence River are significantly lower than warmer months. Shallow sections of the Seaway become more hazardous for larger ships and the risk of running aground increases. When a large ship runs aground, sensitive plant life on the river bottom can be severely disturbed. In addition, running aground increases the risk of pollutants spilling from the ship and into the River.
• With no bulk carriers on the River during winter, the risk of oil spills also decreases. Oil spills are extremely harmful to the River because pollutants travel downstream and affect other ecosystems. Ice also makes the clean-up effort more difficult, more expensive, and more dangerous for the communities they occur in. The Channel may not have ice, but oil will leak into bays and shallow wetlands that do freeze over. These critical areas are significant for the ecological health of the St. Lawrence and any oil trapped beneath the ice would have devastating impacts for years to come. Save The River was founded as a result of the 1976 oil spill and the fear that another spill of the same (or worse) magnitude would occur again due to Winter Navigation.
• This final reason is not as obvious. We all know that wakes, especially the large ones created by industrial bulk carriers, erode the shoreline. It may seem that ice coverage in the winter would decrease the impact of wakes. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Winter wakes do not strike the shoreline, but they do impact the River bottom. The ice acts as a re-bound shield and amplifies the wave loading, or force of the wake, towards the bottom of the River, disturbing aquatic plants and habitat. A no-wake winter means the underwater-scape remains protected and healthy until Spring.

Give nature a break! And let’s keep the ecology of the St. Lawrence healthy through the winter.

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