The Mackenzie River's water levels are so low the the Canadian Coast Guard is now warning people who venture out.
"Due to the current conditions, the Canadian Coast Guard’s levels of service, such providing on-the-water response and maintaining aids to navigation, is impacted," a July 4 news release states.
Two of its ships, the CCGS Eckaloo and the CCGS Dumit, will now operate on Great Slave Lake and at the entrance of the Aklavik Channel to Tuktoyaktuk, respectively.
The coast guard said it's monitoring water levels and will return to full service as soon as possible.
According to the GNWT, in the last five years, water levels on Great Slave Lake have ranged from being extremely low in 2019, back up to the highest on record from 2020 to 2022. They fell again in 2023 and have so far continued trending downwards.
Flow rates at most locations along the Mackenzie River are either well below average or at their lowest recorded value for this time of year, according to the GNWT.