Bizarre: Person fishes on tiny patch of ice downtown Toronto
A strange scene in downtown Toronto was captured on video -- a person appears to be not only standing, but fishing, on a very small patch of ice on Lake Ontario.
The incident occurred on March 15, when relatively mild temperatures hovered above zero degrees and caused significant melt of the remaining snow and ice.
How the person managed to access this patch of ice, float out metres away from the sidewalk, and regain their footing on land remains a mystery. Did they have a paddle? No one knows.
Standing on ice can be very dangerous if it is not thick enough, and the Canadian Red Cross recommends that ice should be 15 cm thick for walking or skating alone, 20 cm thick for skating games, and 25 cm thick for snowmobiles.
There are many factors that affect ice thickness, including the weight that is being placed on top of the ice, the depth and size of the water body, currents, air temperature, and sunlight.
It is recommended that local authorities are contacted before heading out on to bodies of frozen water and night activities on lake ice are avoided.
Video credit: Kieran Petrasek
