A snowmobile trip off the shore of Northern Ohio's Catawba Island recently turned into a daring rescue by helicopter and airboat when Lake Erie's famed winter ice gave way, leaving 18 people stranded on an ice floe drifting away from the shore.
The snowmobilers were trapped for several hours last Sunday before being rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard and a "good Samaritan" with a boat. Though none required medical attention, the incident was another reminder of a growing problem in the Great Lakes region — its shrinking ice. Although conditions vary from winter to winter, average maximum ice cover on the lakes has fallen 22 percent over the last 50 years, according to the research group Climate Central.
