Tough shipping season ends at St. Lawrence Seaway

The last vessel to pass through the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 2009 shipping season cleared the Eisenhower Lock on Monday night, marking the end of one of the worst seasons on record.

The St. Lawrence River section of the Seaway up to the port of Montreal will close to all ships just before midnight tonight.

The Welland Canal section, which includes eight Canadian locks connecting lakes Erie and Ontario to bypass Niagara Falls, must be cleared of ships by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.

As of Monday night, there were five ships remaining in the Seaway system — four headed upbound, into the Great Lakes, and one downbound toward Toronto. All five ships are Canadian.

The last of the four upbound ships to pass through Massena, the J.W. Shelley, left the Eisenhower Lock on Monday evening headed for Lake Ontario.

The Canadian Enterprise entered the first lock of Welland Canal on Monday afternoon, while the John C. Aird was halfway through the Welland locks. Both ships were bound for Lake Erie and points farther upbound. The final upbound ship, the Salvor, was preparing to dock at Wharf 16, Port Colborne, Ontario, at the southernmost end of the Welland Canal.

The sole downbound ship, the Seahound, left Port Weller, Ontario on Tuesday, headed down Lake Ontario to Toronto.

The Seaway marked its 50th anniversary this summer with a huge celebration at the Eisenhower Locks, which drew dignitaries from Washington, D.C., Albany and nearby Great Lakes states. But a downturn in the economy has had a huge impact on shipping in the Canadian-U.S. waterway.

Both the number of ships passing through the Seaway and the total amount of cargo shipped through the system in 2009 were dramatically lower than previous years.

Seaway officials have reported total transits decreased by 17 percent, from nearly 4,000 to about 3,000, from 2008 to 2009. During that same period, the amount of cargo sent through the system dropped 28.3 percent, from more than 37 million tons to about 27 million tons.

Now, Seaway workers in the Massena area will begin annual winter maintenance, which will bring them through to the opening of the 2010 shipping season.

In the coming weeks, the Eisenhower and Snell locks will be drained and cleaned. Invasive species such as zebra mussels will be removed from the lock interiors and deteriorating sections of concrete will be drilled out and replaced.

An official reopening date has not yet been posted, but the Seaway traditionally resumes operations in late February or March.