Saturday, February 07, 2009

Lake Erie Ice Fisherman Rescued, One Death Reported



Hi All- I botanize along the coast of Lake Erie quite a bit. I don't get up to the coast in winter, so I'm not familiar with ice fishing. Apparently, this morning, a large ice floe broke away off of Crane Creek State Park (aka Magee Marsh Wildlife Area), stranding hundreds of people. A large rescue effort is over, but the Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting at least one death.


UPDATE: This has become quite a amazing story, making national headlines. I've head a few links to my blog from CNN.com...very interesting. My heart goes out to everyone today- the rescuers, the fisherman, and the families. You can only imagine what that was like. I've been to Crane Creek many times-the park where the ice floe broke off. It is one of the best birding areas in the country, and is adjacent to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. For those of you that don't have experience with the Great Lakes, they really are inland seas. They are dangerous systems- its not like walking out on the ice at Little Pond in Maine or even an inland reservoir. Thousands of people ice fish on the lakes every year, and I here that the fishing has been great this year. Amazing stuff, again, I know this area of the state pretty well, so my heart again goes out to everyone involved today.

Tom

5 comments:

  1. From what little I know and from the post you wrote that area might be the place for Buckeyes or anybody else to take photographs of birds. I don't know if I will be able to get out and about this summer (I hope and pray I will) but if I do I would like to go to a place like this for a change to just my backyard wildlife.

    Interesting post. I had not heard anything about this accident.

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  2. I knew lots of people that ice fished when I lived in MN. Doesn't seem like something I would do this far south, although it has been cold recently...
    Apparently it wasn't the thickness of the ice that got them but the fact that they bridged a crack that then further separated with the wind. Not a good idea.

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  3. Abe- Yep, this is the birding photo capital of Ohio, and maybe the midwest. It would be a great place to travel to- Just a few hours up I-75. May is the big month to visit. If you time the bird migration just right, people have told me that the trees are "dripping" with colorful warblers, orioles, and others.

    James-

    Yep. They built a bridge with wooden pallets across a big crack. The wind blew the ice, and the pallets fell in the water. The fisher people were then trapped.

    Tom

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  4. Tom: It is too bad when fishing can take your life. The people that come to save you make you leave everthing on the ice and only take people. I don't fish under conditions that will injure me.

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  5. I read about that--how crazy! I mean, we liked our ice fishing in Canada, too, but we know when NOT to tempt the fates!

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