New York: The bulker Juno, which ran aground in the New York State section of the St Lawrence Seaway on Monday, was refloated on Wednesday morning, enabling traffic to resume on the waterway.
The 622-foot freighter, carrying 19,000 metric tons of sugar to Toronto, is believed to have encountered a steering problem before running aground near Wellesley Island between Clayton and Alexandria Bay, close to a part of the Thousand Islands International Bridge system.
Juno (30,185 dwt, built 2011), owned by Polsteam of Poland, had been taking on water and listing to port according to the US Coast Guard who were handling the situation in cooperation with the St Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation and Canadian Coast Guard tug boats.
Once refloated, the Juno was moved to anchor at Mason Point, near Clayton. Traffic on the seaway, which helps link the Great Lakes with the Atlantic, resumed soon after. It had been delayed for two days.
There were no crew injured in the incident, no impact was made with the bridge and there was no loss of cargo or spillage of fuel.
Other bodies who helped in the operation were the Saint Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation, Polsteam USA, Seaway Traffic, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Jefferson County.
This was the second such grounding of a bulk carrier since the Seaway opened for the season on April 2. On April 3, the bulk carrier CWB Marquis (39,400 dwt) ran aground near Beauharnois in Quebec.
