Icebreaker Works to Free Canadian Ferry With 40 Passengers

A Canadian icebreaker worked Friday to free a stranded ferry and its 40 passengers stuck for a third straight day off the coast of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, the ferry's owner said.

The Canadian navy's most powerful icebreaker, the Louis S. St-Laurent, "is currently making headway and making sure they are moving," Darrell Mercer, spokesman for ferry owner Marine Atlantic told AFP.

He estimated that the passenger vessel, the MV Blue Puttees, would arrive in port in Sydney, Nova Scotia, in eastern Canada by Friday evening.

It had left Channel-Port aux Basques in Newfoundland on Wednesday.

"The coast guards are describing these conditions as the worst they've been facing for 30 years," Mercer said.

The ice is as deep as eight meters (25 feet) in some spots, the spokesman said, explaining that wind had pushed it in certain areas, increasing its density.

Unlike western and central Canada, which had milder than usual temperatures this winter, the Atlantic provinces and Quebec experienced a colder than average season.

The Atlantic provinces have been buffeted with snowstorms over the past month, with snow accumulation that has reached up to five meters in New Brunswick and Halifax.