Ice is Weak & Ice Rescues Are Up

GREEN BAY, WI- (WGBW) – While the weather is still playing fast and loose with Winter, Spring is nearing. Tom Drzewiecki, owner of Bayside Ice & Marine Rescue, says ice rescues are up. He calls this is a dangerous time of year – a March Madness – that has nothing to do with basketball but everything to do with staying above water.

Drzewiecki says that in the last week, he has had approximately 10 jobs rescuing people or vehicles that have fallen through the ice.

“ We did one on the Sturgeon Bay Shipping Canal on Saturday. A person dropped his GMC Acadia in about 24 feet of water. He was upside down,” Drzewiecki said. “He’s lucky to be alive at this moment. If he hadn’t gotten out of that vehicle, it would have been lights out for him!”

Drzewiecki said that ice that is a foot thick right now is not safe due to an effect called honeycombing, where the ice melts and has pockets of weakness. Honeycombing is caused by rain or temperatures that reach the 50-degree mark and then lower back to freezing.

“ This is classic honeycomb ice. So just because you have ice thickness doesn’t mean it’s good ice. If you have stronger ice early in the year, an inch and a half will outsupport a foot of ice right now,” he said.

Advice for Staying Safe on the Ice

If you are determined to get in one more ice fishing trip before Spring, Drzewiecki says two things can help you stay safe on the ice: paying attention to the conditions, the weather, and the color of the ice is one.

 Your ice is going to go from a gray to a darker color to the point where it actually gets black,” said Drzewiecki. “But then! It’ll actually turn white again, or gray. When it gets like that, unless you’re a mosquito, you’re not walking on it. It’s bad, bad, bad.”

The second and most important part of staying safe is being prepared.

“ Wear a float suit. Have that cell phone. If it’s not waterproof, you better get it in a baggie or something. Tell people where you’re going. You need to fish where people can see you,” Drzewiecki advises. “Don’t try to walk out there two or three miles where nobody can see you because it’s all about this self rescue. If you fall through the ice, can you physically get yourself back up on top of that ice before you succumb to hypothermia before the rescue personnel get to you?”

Drzewiecki talked about ice rescues as a guest on the Maino and the Mayor Show airing weekday mornings from 6 to 9 on WISS and WGBW. Find them on the Civic Media app.