Ship Spotting: Toronto Harbour, July 2026 - Global Maritime HistorySo lately there has been a kerfuffle about the Toronto Island Airport, with the Ontario Provincial Government seizing control of the entirety of the Island, and booting the City of Toronto out of the agreement with the Federal Government and the Toronto Port Authority for control of the airport. A few days ago, the Federal Government decided it was not going to support destroying the Island in order to have jets landing at the Island Airport. However, these are not the only developments going on with the Island Airport, as the Toronto Port Authority has this past week started construction on the Runway End Safety Areas, a required feature that it didn’t previously have. This is fortunate, because it’s allowed us to have a very interesting sighting deep in Toronto Harbour, one that hasn’t happened for many years- a laker/bulk freighter, very close to the City, and in the Western Half of the harbour. In fact, the freighter – the Whitefish Bay– has been backing directly into the eastern Exclusion Area after the airport shuts down for the night to offload gravel to create the new area as described at the link above. Since the Whitefish Bay is working with the Amy Lynn D, owned by Doornekamp, and seems to be loading gravel at Picton Terminal, it seems pretty clear that Dornekamp (which owns Picton Terminal) is very deeply involved in this project. Whitefish Bay Stats: Year Built 2013 Horsepower BHP: 11,734 | kW: 8,750 Deadweight 34,400 tonnes Gross tonnage 24,430 tonnes Net tonnage 8,116 tonnes Length Overall 225.50 metres Breadth moulded 23.76 metres Length B.P. (Lpp) 222.60 metres I will admit, when I saw the Port Authority’s animation I didn’t believe it for a second, but I can now report that I have seen it with my own eyes and it’s true.globalmaritimehistory.com
Ship Spotting: Toronto Harbour, July 2026 - Global Maritime HistorySo lately there has been a kerfuffle about the Toronto Island Airport, with the Ontario Provincial Government seizing control of the entirety of the Island, and booting the City of Toronto out of the agreement with the Federal Government and the Toronto Port Authority for control of the airport. A few days ago, the Federal Government decided it was not going to support destroying the Island in order to have jets landing at the Island Airport. However, these are not the only developments going on with the Island Airport, as the Toronto Port Authority has this past week started construction on the Runway End Safety Areas, a required feature that it didn’t previously have. This is fortunate, because it’s allowed us to have a very interesting sighting deep in Toronto Harbour, one that hasn’t happened for many years- a laker/bulk freighter, very close to the City, and in the Western Half of the harbour. In fact, the freighter – the Whitefish Bay– has been backing directly into the eastern Exclusion Area after the airport shuts down for the night to offload gravel to create the new area as described at the link above. Since the Whitefish Bay is working with the Amy Lynn D, owned by Doornekamp, and seems to be loading gravel at Picton Terminal, it seems pretty clear that Dornekamp (which owns Picton Terminal) is very deeply involved in this project. Whitefish Bay Stats: Year Built 2013 Horsepower BHP: 11,734 | kW: 8,750 Deadweight 34,400 tonnes Gross tonnage 24,430 tonnes Net tonnage 8,116 tonnes Length Overall 225.50 metres Breadth moulded 23.76 metres Length B.P. (Lpp) 222.60 metres I will admit, when I saw the Port Authority’s animation I didn’t believe it for a second, but I can now report that I have seen it with my own eyes and it’s true.globalmaritimehistory.com