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How to lasso an iceberg
By Kathryn Carlson

Are you willing to trade in your cowboy boots and dusty trails for a tugboat ride through Iceberg Alley? If so, you might want to consider becoming one of Canada’s finest iceberg wranglers.

But before you head out to tackle a stray bergie bit or a pesky growler, iceberg harvester Edward Kean says there are a few things you’ll need to know so you don’t get cold feet around the big hunks.

• Wrangling isn’t done solo, so you’ll have to enlist the help of six other saltwater cowboys.
• You’ll also need three boats if you want to lasso the iceberg as quickly and safely as possible. One boat will act as your team’s base during the operation, one will be a tugboat with at least 500 horsepower, and one can be any ol’ small boat.
• Approach the iceberg with caution, warns Kean. Icebergs can be dangerous prey, even for the most experienced wranglers, because they can cause mini-tsunamis, break apart and crash into your boat, or rollover and reveal sharp tentacles.
• Determine the size of the iceberg. A 5,000-tonne iceberg is ideal for wrangling, but if you’re feeling particularly ambitious you can try to lasso a berg weighing up to 50,000 tonnes!
• Look at the shape of the berg. A tabular iceberg is the easiest to lasso because of its square shape. Kean says to stay away from a pinnacle berg because they can be quite "roly-poly" and have sharp spikes below the water’s surface.

Learn more: • Iceberg Vodka

• Check out the colour of the iceberg in question. A bluish berg is made from very hard ice and holds up better than a white berg.
• Take the temperature of the water into consideration. The warmer the water is, the more likely it is that the berg will start to break apart or roll over.
• Watch any birds that might be perched on the iceberg. Birds have a keen sense of balance and if they take off flying, the berg is likely about to tip over or break apart.
• Once you’ve determined that the berg is safe to lasso, three wranglers should stay on the main boat, two should board the tugboat, and two should head onto the small boat.
• Approach the berg with the tugboat. If it’s tabular, you can get up close to the iceberg. If it’s not tabular, you should keep a good distance from the iceberg.
• Make sure you have a sturdy rope with a diameter of at least three inches and let it out as you encircle the stray berg. Be careful not to cause too much friction because you could start to erode the rope.
• Once you’ve gone around the entire iceberg, your wrangling partners in the small boat will cinch the rope for you. This will create the lasso you’ll need to start tugging the iceberg in the desired direction. Yeehaw!
• Remember that you’ll only be able to go about one knot per hour (1.8 kilometres per hour) when you’re towing the boat. Kean says a typical tow lasts about 10 hours but adds that it all depends on how far you need to move the li’l rascal.
• Once you have the iceberg where you want it, undo the cinch in the lasso and bring in the rope.
• Remember that saltwater cowboys like Kean don’t lasso bergs purely for the fun of it. Icebergs are wrangled to clear paths for ships, to secure the area around offshore oilrigs, and also for their freshwater content. Water from icebergs is so pure that it can be sold as bottled water

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