Do you shovel the snow off your pond?

Record low temps continue with 25-30 below zero windchill. No doubt its really, really cold out. Looks like the sun is going to shine at least today. Counted at least a dozen vehicles in the ditch this morning as I drove into work. Weather man just promised possibly getting back up to 30 above by next Wed. or Thurs. Never thought 30 degrees would sound good! Harry talked about possibly going out to the pond this weekend and digging it out. The recent high winds have buried it in snow. Its deceptively level out there and someone running across my yard would be really shocked if they fell down into the pond area thinking it was solid ground everywhere. I'll only let Harry shovel off the pond if I'm home. The aerator can produce what we call rotten ice, which is like honeycombed ice. I worry about him falling in and not being able to get out. So even though we do shovel the snow off the pond, we do take precautions. Its not something we get all excited about and think needs to be done "right this minute", but do it as soon as it warms a little. There is a lot of controversy surrounding whether you need to shovel the snow off. Some say no, and that it helps insulate the pond. My KHA training, says it should be removed. Allowing light to penetrate the pond prevents remaining algae and any submersible plants from thinking its night all the time. Plants expire CO2 and take up O2 during the night then, reverse the process during the daylight hours adding O2 back to the water. If they think it's night all the time they can contribute to the CO2 problems that already exist in a winter pond. Excess CO2 can contribute to a falling pH over time. In addition, snow, like rain, is very "soft" (like distilled water) in nature or can be very acidic, in certain regions like big polluted cities. Massive amounts of melting snow entering the pond can contribute to big pH changes. So for these reasons, and the fact we just want the fish to continue to have ordinary light/dark cycles, that we clean the snow off. Our pond has no submersible plants in it at all, but does have a healthy growth of algae on the sides. Technically, it's not the water surface that freezes, but the evaporating water from the surface that freezes. As water evaporates into the air, it becomes less dense as O2 mixes with it. This less dense vapor freezes. That is why there is always a small space of air between the water and the ice covering. Once a pond is covered with ice, freezing slows as the surface is now protected from blowing wind that contributes to the evaporation speed. Ice on the pond does not really "seal" a pond up tight. The ice actually does breath somewhat and there is still a gas exchange happening at the edges, but it is greatly limited and that is why a maintained hole is the common safety precaution advised. The hole produced from my aerator (pictured earlier) is completely froze over. Only the hole created by my floating light bulb is still open. The inner tube that supports it is frozen in the ice too, but the hole in the center of the tube remains open. The fish are still stacked directly under it in the shallow water and have not moved to the deeper warmer pond water. Hopefully the light is keeping the shallow water a tad warmer. I dug out a thermometer I hope to drop in this weekend. So, we'll see. I really just want it to warm up a little. A little solar heat would help both the pond and me a lot!