Canadian Coast Guard icebreaking season begins
Ships started leaving ports in southern Canada June 16 and are expected to trace through the Arctic until November
Three Canadian Coast Guard ships have left southern Canada for this year’s annual icebreaking and scientific missions. Four more will head to the Arctic by Aug. 14. Seen here is the CCGS Pierre Radisson navigating through ice. (File photo)
The Canadian Coast Guard’s annual summer season of icebreaking, science and exploratory missions is underway.
The coast guard deploys icebreakers from June to November each year “to support northern communities, operational and program commitments, and sovereignty in the Arctic,” said a news release from the coast guard Monday.
Seven ships will trace their way through Arctic waters this season.
The CCGS Amundsen, which left Quebec City on June 16, will be performing scientific research. It is Canada’s only icebreaker dedicated to research, according to the Amundsen Science website.
The CCGS Des Groseilliers was deployed from Quebec City on June 20. It will be refuelling the Killiniq communication station and Eureka weather station; it is also providing “aids to navigation in the Hudson Strait, and [for] Canadian Hydrographic Service surveys,” according to the news release.
Aids to navigation are a broad spectrum of guides such as buoys, radio transmitters, fog horns and electrical devices to support a ship’s navigation through ocean waters.
The CCGS Pierre Radisson left Quebec City on July 1 for science missions and its annual resupply of U.S. Pituffik Space Base in Greenland.
On July 10, the CCGS Henry Larsen is due to depart St. John’s, N.L., for icebreaking in the western Arctic and Canadian hydrographic surveys in Hudson Bay.
Also on July 10, the CCGS Vincent Massey will depart Quebec City for icebreaking duty in the eastern and central Arctic.
On July 13, the CCGS Jean Goodwill departs Dartmouth, N.S., for icebreaking in the low and high Arctic.
Then on Aug. 14, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent will set out from St. John’s, N.L., for icebreaking and work on the Joint Ocean Ice Study, an international effort on Arctic climate research, in the Beaufort Sea.
In addition to their assigned missions, the icebreakers assist ships during the busy summer shipping season by providing daily updates on ice conditions, existing operations and as escorts when needed.
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