LITTLE CURRENT—Residents travelling across the Little Current Swing Bridge in the early morning hours on Christmas Eve day were startled to see a mass of wreckage piled on the Goat Island side of the bridge.
The wreckage was all that remained of a decommissioned fish cage that had been tied up at the Cold Water Fisheries landing at the coal docks. The high winds (with gusts to 90 kilometres an hour) experienced on the Island apparently tore the cages loose from docks and sent them hurtling into one of the bridge pylons.
The Manitoulin Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) reported in a press release that members of the detachment responded at 7:55 am on Thursday, December 24 to a report that a barge had struck the swing bridge.
Upon investigation, the OPP discovered that a decommissioned fish cage had broken away from its mooring in the high wind and had drifted into the bridge support structure, but that no hazardous materials were reported to be on the fish cages.
The OPP indicated that the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) had determined there was no damage to the bridge supports, that the bridge was safe for travel by motorists and that Coldwater Fisheries workers were waiting for the high winds and strong current to subside to enable the safe removal of the fish cage debris.
Although blue fish totes could be seen floating along the shoreline on the Georgian Bay side of the bridge, there were no fish in the cages at the time of the incident, to the expressed disappointment of some local fishermen, but obviously of great relief to the owners.
As of press time Monday it was still unconfirmed by The Expositor as to whether the fish cages, originally from the Northeast site, had been transferred to Wabuno operators Cole-Munroe or whether the leased cages were insured at the time of their destruction. Calls to Coldwater Fisheries had not been returned as of press time Monday.
The cages were eventually disentangled from the side of the bridge as the winds abated and moved back to the coal docks and the debris scattered along the shoreline had been retrieved.
