The U.S. Coast Guard is making waves on the Great Lakes with a plan to establish 34 live-fire zones where its crews can practise with machine-guns mounted on their vessels.

A period for public comment on the plan was to have expired on Friday but was extended after requests from boaters, tourist operators and others for more time. Comments will be accepted for another 60 days, Petty Officer Bill Colclough, a spokesman for the coast guard's Cleveland office, told CBC Online.

A U.S. Coast Guard officer trains on a machine-gun.
(Courtesy: Ensign William White)

The 7.62-mm light machine-guns, which can fire 600 rounds a minute, have been made standard equipment on the coast guard's Great Lakes cutters as a result of terrorism jitters and a quiet reinterpretation of an arms-control treaty signed after the War of 1812. The treaty, between the United States and Britain, limited each side to four armed vessels on the lakes, each equipped with an 18-pound cannon.

The U.S. cutters previously had no mounted weapons, although their crews were equipped with pistols and rifles. When the new guns made headlines earlier this year, the Canadian Coast Guard said it reserved the right to arm its own vessels.

The plan, published Aug. 1 in the U.S. government's Federal Register, would create "safety zones" where civilians could be barred from time to time while the coast guard fires its guns. Each zone would be at least 5.5 kilometres off shore, the document says.

"These safety zones are necessary to protect vessels and people from hazards associated with live fire gun exercises," it says.

"Such hazards include projectiles that may ricochet and damage vessels and/or cause death or serious bodily harm."

Three zones on Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario would have three such zones, Lake Erie four, Lake Huron six, Lake Superior seven and Lake Michigan 14.  Coast guard officials have said they would be well away from the international border, but some — near Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., for example — would be in areas where Canadian boats might wander.

The coast guard was transferred to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and encouraged to take a more muscular approach to external threats as part of a reorganization following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Officials have said they expect to use each live-fire zone only two or three times a year, a day or two each time, but the plan itself mentions no limits. They dismiss one possible environmental objection, saying the copper-and-lead bullets would sink in deep water and could not be eaten by bottom-feeding waterfowl. 

Some boaters have warned that amateurs could wander into machine-gun range if they fail to read official Notices to Mariners or listen to announcements on marine radio.

George Freeman, who runs fishing charters out of Ludington, Mich., said he and other Lake Michigan captains worry about losing access to fishing grounds. One of the zones is in waters he regularly fishes.

"I know they need to have a place to shoot," he told the Detroit Free Press. "We could go elsewhere, but we need to be able to go where the fish are."

Comments on the plan can be sent to the Commander, Ninth Coast Guard District, 1240 East 9th Street, Room 2069, Cleveland, Ohio 44199.

With file from the Associated Press