SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – Coast Guard Cutters Mackinaw, Mobile Bay and Neah Bay will stat ice breaking operations on the bay of Green Bay, Monday, March 09.

The Port of Green Bay resumes commercial shipping activity at week’s end. In advance, to prepare regional waterways for commercial ship movements, the Coast Guard will commence “Spring Break Out.”

These icebreaking operations will likely occur in areas used by recreational users such as, but not limited to, the Fox River, Green Bay Entrance Channel, the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, Menominee River Entrance, and the waters of Green Bay from Escanaba to the Port of Green Bay. In the days and weeks to come, these icebreaking efforts will increase in frequency as ice conditions deteriorate and commercial navigation increases.

Unlike some previous winters, this year was unseasonably warm. Regional ice cover is not as expansive nor did it reach traditional thicknesses.

The forecast for the next seven to 10 days calls for temperatures conducive to rapid deterioration of ice. All snowmobile, All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) operators, ice fishing, and other recreational users of the ice should recognize the instability of the ice, plan their activities carefully, and use caution near the ice, especially in proximity to charted navigation areas.