At least 34 people have been rescued after they were stranded out at sea when a huge chunk of ice broke from the shoreline and floated out into the ocean.
Just off of Point Comfort on Green Bay, Wisconsin, in the US, 34 ice fisherman were left stranded at sea until the coast guard saved them.
At around 10:15am that morning, the Brown County Sheriff’s Office received a report that a large chunk of ice had broken from the shoreline and drifted out to sea with multiple people on it.
The ice had drifted nearly a mile from the coast and the Sheriff's Office said it was deteriorating quickly beneath their feet with water lapping over the edges.
It took the coast guard less than two hours to save them and during the rescue the ice continued to drift another three quarters of a mile.
The Sheriff’s Office said: "It is believed a barge that had gone through the Bay shortly before the ice breakage may have contributed to the destabilisation of the ice.
"Although the chunk of ice remained fairly stable, its condition was deteriorating rapidly (and) cracking up as it moved with the open water pounding at the edge of it.”
Shane Nelson told Fox11 News he and Robert Verhagen had been out ice fishing when they heard a loud noise.
He said it sounded like gunfire when the ice broke.
He said: "We got out of our shanty, looked and ... a couple people were yelling that the ice was separating."
It had been the pair’s first time out ice fishing and was an experience to remember.
No one was injured or had to go to hospital thanks to the quick response.
