[chris]

Coast Guard Cutter Bristol Bay (WTGB 102) transited Round Island Pass near Mackinac Island, Michigan, on April 1, 2026, while en route to break ice in Beaver Island Harbor for Operation Taconite.

On April 2, the cutter broke ice near Beaver Island and directly assisted a 740-foot motor vessel near the Straits of Mackinac. The lake freighter was beset by ice on Lake Michigan and could not transit through the ice under its own power.

The work was part of Operation Taconite, one of two Coast Guard ice-breaking missions in the Great Lakes District and the largest domestic ice-breaking operation in the U.S.