On Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:19:47 -0400, Martin Baxter
wrote:

It's possible that the cutbacks to the Coast Guard that have been
imposed over the last few years have impacted the service so much that
the boats are now undermanned and there's just not enough crew to run
the ship through ice and maintain lookouts fore and aft?

It's also possible that there are training and organizational issues.
A friend of mine was sailing a 40 footer back from Nova Scotia 10
years ago when he was T-boned in the fog (on the starboard side) by a
Canadian Coast Guard boat. His boat was almost totaled.