The extensive ice season, second only to 2003, creates an additional challenge for the Ninth District's Operation Spring Restore. The largest U.S. domestic buoy operation restores nearly 1,300 navigational aids to their assigned positions, including lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons. Operation Spring restore is delayed due to the ice season and will require increased cutter hours to meet the May 30 deadline.

This year's ice breaking operations facilitated more than $60 million in Great Lakes commerce; and assisted nearly 150 vessels as they transited through ice more than 15 feet thick.

Cmdr. John Little, USCGC MACKINAW, said that rising temperatures have caused the ice to diminish and shift. “The ice, which was once connected to shore, is now breaking offshore and falling into Mackinaw's once 900-foot-wide track,” Little said. “As this continues to occur, Mackinaw will lead vessels on their transits because the location and thickness of the ice is unpredictable.”