Analysis and Results of 30 Years of Iceberg Management

Iceberg management operations have been conducted off eastern Canada for the past 30 years. Various analyses on the success of those operations had been conducted and the results included in reports that were proprietary documents. A small study (Bishop, 1989) analyzed a few years of data and assessed the success of iceberg towing to be 85% while other anecdotal information suggested the success was more like 95%. Provincial Aerospace was contracted to assemble all available iceberg management data into a structured database, with the final outcome to be a publicly available database, capable of providing information to assist in defining ice risk. The PERD Comprehensive Iceberg Management Database contains detailed information on over 1,500 iceberg management operations. These data have helped define bench marks against which future ice management operations can be compared and has directly contributed to a reassessment of the risk of iceberg collision with offshore structures. This paper provides an overview of the database and discusses the results of a subsequent detailed analysis.