BREMEN, Maine — Icebound fishing vessels in Bremen got a helping hand from the U.S. Coast Guard when the Rockland-based cutter Tackle came to town on an ice-breaking mission Feb. 24.
The 65-foot small harbor ice breaker was operating near the Bremen Lobster Pound Co-Op in the early afternoon after requests for ice-breaking in that area, according to Lt. David Bourbeau, chief of the Waterways Management Division for Coast Guard Sector Northern New England.
The Tackle was headed to Friendship on Feb. 24 to break out the fishing fleet there when requests for assistance in Bremen came in, according to Bourbeau.
Breaking loose a wide swath of ice, the Tackle appeared to free five vessels near the co-op before heading south and apparently away from Bremen.
According to Bourbeau, there are limits on when and where ice-breaking efforts by vessels like the Tackle can be performed.
The draft of the Tackle and similar 65-foot tugs is such that they usually don’t operate in less than 12 feet of water without additional lookouts, Bourbeau said.
Ice-breaking also needs to take place during an ebbing tide, so the ice flows away from the harbor, he said.
The officer in charge of the Tackle likely took those factors, as well as other conditions such as the tightness of the area and the ice coverage, into consideration during the mission, Bourbeau said.
“I just wish we could have done more for the community down there,” said Bourbeau.
The U.S. Coast Guard has 11 65-foot small harbor tugs like the Tackle in service, all on the East Coast from Maine to Virginia, according to www.uscg.mil. All were built between 1962 and 1967.