Sixty-six fishermen in Wisconsin were trapped on Thursday and were later rescued from ice floes in Lake Michigan, officials said.
The ice fishermen were stranded on Thursday morning at the mouth of Sturgeon Bay, which opens into Green Bay, the coast guard said. There were no injuries and everyone was rescued within four hours.
Cmdr. Bryan Swintek, search and rescue coordinator for Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan, said training and close inter-agency relationships led to Thursday’s success. Photos released by the Guard showed the rescue operation, including helicopters.
The Door County Sheriff’s Office said fishermen were trapped in Green Bay “due to pressure cracks created between their location and the shoreline.”
They were in three different locations. The rescue was completed just before what was described by the sheriff’s office as a major winter storm that hit the area.
At 9 p.m. Thursday, the city of Green Bay had recorded more than six inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service, and more than eight inches of snow had fallen in some inland areas.
Officials stressed that anyone taking to the ice should check the weather, have a reliable means of communication, and dress for water temperatures instead of air temperatures.
Fishermen from the Great Lakes have been stranded on ice before, including 134 who were rescued from Lake Erie’s ice after a crack formed in 2009.
In 2019, the Coast Guard and other agencies rescued 46 ice fishermen, including on Lake Erie near the Ohio coast, and about 100 were able to “save themselves,” authorities said at the time.
“When you hit the ice, no ice is ever 100 percent safe,” the Door County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement following Thursday’s rescue in Wisconsin.
