The seaway opening also means it’s the start of shipwatching season in the Thousand Islands. Mike Folsom blogs at the ship watcher dot com.

He says ice breaking is often needed to get the seaway open in the spring, but this year’s exceptionally warm winter has meant there’s been almost no ice breaking—at least not in our region.

The majority of the ice breaking this year took place in the St. Mary’s river in the upper lakes. But here the weather’s been phenomenal, and there’s a little  bit of ice breaking duty  that the Seaway had called for in the canal between Snell and Eisenhower locks, but other than that it’s been wide open.

Folsom says ships were waiting in Montreal and on the Welland Canal, to pass through the locks, a few days before the Seaway opening.

Nora Flaherty spoke with Folsom on Thursday afternoon.