U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-IN) on April 30 reintroduced bipartisan legislation, known as the SHIPS Act, that intends to revitalize shipbuilding in the U.S. and close the ship vessel gap between America and foreign adversaries, such as China. Read the full story by The Indianapolis Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250430-shipbuilding-bill
In Ontario, lake sturgeon is a culturally significant and nutritionally important species for many communities. It’s also Ontario’s oldest fish, but that legacy could blink out without help and dedicated conservation. Read the full story by The Narwhal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250430-sturgeon-conservation
The Steamship William G. Mather, a 618-foot freighter, opens for public tours on Saturday, May 3, and celebrates 100 years on lakes Erie, Huron and Superior on May 23. Once the working flagship of Cleveland Cliffs, Inc., the Mather now serves as a museum behind the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250430-steamship-anniversary
Ontario’s government wants to “unleash” its resources with sweeping changes to its laws on protecting species at risk aimed at speeding up environmental approvals. The government has portrayed the current system as slow and cumbersome, driving away resource and development companies from Ontario, but the new bill is raising alarms from environmental groups. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250430-species-protections
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources manages more dams than any other owner in the state. What happens as the dams continue to age? Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250428-dams-michigan-failing
The Minnesota Fishing Opener is less than two weeks away, but there are new fish consumption guidelines to be aware of before hitting the water. Read the full story by WDIO-TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250428-addressing-pfas-local-lakes
The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority announced earlier this week that Victory Cruise Lines’ 296-foot Victory I cruiser ship would dock in downtown Toledo, Ohio, on May 30. Toledo has a deep maritime culture and heritage that deserves to be celebrated. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250428-celebrating-greatlakes
A reborn Victory Cruise Lines christened the Victory I on Sunday in Toronto, Ontario, and will follow with the Victory II on May 12 in Chicago, Illinois, marking a return of Victory Cruise Lines to the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Travel Weekly.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250428-ontariocounty-victorycruiseline-greatlakes
Ontario County’s Department of Public Works estimates up to 70 lifeguards will be needed for the beaches and community pools across Ontario County, New York, this year. To try to attract more applicants, the county is participating in a state-funded program that reimburses the costs of lifeguard training and certification, which can run as high as $300. Read the full story by the WXXI – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250428-ontariocounty-reimbursementprogram-lifeguards
The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay emphasized the importance of everyday environmental stewardship by hosting a cleanup event at West End Beach located in Traverse City, Michigan. Read the full story by WPBN-TV – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250428-greatlakes-cleanup-event-westendbeach
As the temperatures increase in April, the water levels in the Great Lakes begin to rise from the winter decline. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers predicts that April is the beginning of the seasonal rise for all the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250428-greatlakes-waterlevels-april
The SS Badger Lake Michigan car ferry is set to travel to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, on April 29 for essential repairs before the start of the sailing season on May 16. Read the full story by WPBN-TV – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250428-ss-badger-sturgeonbay-sailingseason
Even if you aren’t in need of a break from driving, Michigan’s roadside parks offer incredible views, sandy beaches and other attractions that make them worth a stop. Read the full story by The Sault News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250428-mi-roadside-park-reopen-soon
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when disruptions to life and work took hold, the sea lampreys took hold, too. We need to fortify our Great Lakes — and the $7 billion-plus fishery, 75,000 jobs, lifestyle and ecological safety they provide. Read the full story by the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250428-editorial-sealamppreys-suck
A new study found that microfibers are present in several types of algae from lakes Michigan, Erie, Huron, and Ontario in areas with high and low populations. Because the pollutant is stringy, other toxic chemicals like PFAS attach to microfibers and can get to other organisms more easily. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250425-microfiber-research
A preliminary budget outline from the Office of Management and Budget requests that federal involvement in many aspects of Great Lakes science be eliminated entirely by next year. It calls for NOAA’s budget to be reduced by nearly $1.7 billion from 2025 levels, including ending funding for Sea Grant programs nationwide. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250425-proposed-spending-cuts
An ice buildup in the Soo Locks caused an eight-hour delay for some big freighters, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to send its tug to break up the ice and pass it downstream so shipping could resume. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250425-freighter-delay
As one of the first major initiatives of the new Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary, a research vessel will spend several weeks near Oswego, New York, using a remotely controlled robot to document shipwrecks located hundreds of feet below the surface of Lake Ontario. Read the full story by Oswego County News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250425-shipwreck-documentation
After the seasonal decline during the winter months, the water levels in Lake Erie are on the rise again and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers predicts the levels will rise for the next six months. Current levels are around the long-term average for April. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250425-water-levels
Governor Pritzker of Illinois said he’s still awaiting written guarantees that the federal government will fund the $1.15 billion project to block invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needs Illinois to transfer property in order to begin construction on the long-awaited fortifications at a chokepoint dam on the Des Plaines River. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250425-invasive-carp-funding-assurance
Steelhead, a type of rainbow trout that head to the Knife River in Minnesota’s North Shore to spawn, have experienced dramatic population decline over the past decade. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are weighing, measuring, and tagging the fish to learn where they’re coming from, where they’re going, and why their numbers have dropped. Read the full story by WCCO-TV – Minneapolis, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250425-fish-tagging
Pennsylvania’s Presque Isle typically receives $3 million annually for its sand replenishment project, with half coming from the Commonwealth and the other half in federal funding. Because of current federal funding uncertainty, sand work likely won’t start until July, despite the work typically beginning in the spring. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250425-funding-uncertainty
Ozaukee County’s main marina in Port Washington, Wisconsin, received a shipment of 60,000 salmon from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in preparation for the summer’s charter fishing ventures. Read the full story by WTMJ-TV – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250425-fish-shipment
The Trump administration’s new trade rules aimed at penalizing operators of Chinese-built ships and boosting domestic shipbuilding appear to have spared the Great Lakes shipping industry from fees on ships built in China. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250425-ship-fees
Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, a student group at the University of Michigan, and the United Auto Workers union were among the main organizers to build momentum in organizing the first Earth Day in 1970. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250423-first-earth-day
This year, Chicago breaks ground on a pipeline that will bring water from the Great Lakes to some suburbs whose groundwater is running dry. Read the full story by WBUR – Boston, MA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250423-drinking-water
Wind turbines in the Great Lakes have the potential to produce huge amounts of clean energy, but offshore wind has been banned by a moratorium in Ontario since 2011 and faces challenges in the U.S. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250423-offshore-wind
Ohio House lawmakers voted this month to make steep cuts to the statewide water quality program, H2Ohio, which was formed after toxins left Toledo temporarily without safe drinking water. Read the full story by WYSO – Yellow Springs, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250423-ohio-cuts
Invasive Phragmites are overwhelming Ontario’s wetlands, but a team of dedicated experts and community members are fighting back. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250423-phragmites
A new fishing season started this month, and that means Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources has plans for stocking sport fish in the state’s waters. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250423-fishing-season
Last month, a bill was introduced in the New York State Assembly that would grant the Great Lakes and all other bodies of water in New York legal rights to exist “free from human violations.” This would allow the Great Lakes to be defended in court. Read the full story by Rolling Stone.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250423-rights-of-nature
A cruise ship will visit Toledo, Ohio, next month for the first time since the late 1990s thanks to the efforts of local officials and an auto race that is diverting the ship from Detroit. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250423-cruise-toledo
Mariners have a busy schedule to keep commerce flowing to the industrial and manufacturing centers in the region, but that doesn’t stop them from celebrating with food and festivities on board the vessels. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250423-freighter-easter
Many of the shallow waterways of the Great Lakes have only been surveyed by researchers in waders using nets and traps. Very few have been explored by skilled underwater photographers, until recently. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250423-photographing-fish
In Alpena, Michigan, the non-profit organization, Great Lakes Great Responsibility, is hosting two events to celebrate Earth Day by clearing trash and cleaning storm drains to protect Lake Huron. Read the full story by the Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250421-earth-day-2025
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has decided to fast-track permits for building a protective tunnel around an aging Enbridge oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes. Read the full story by KFIZ – Fond du Lac, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250421-protective-tunnel
The Federal Nagara was the first ocean-going vessel to transit the full St. Lawrence Seaway originating from Germany and stopping in Contrecoeur, Quebec, before continuing to Duluth, Minnesota. Read the full story by the WDIO-TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250421-first-saltie
The Great Lakes Observing System is facing potential shutdown of its real-time data network of buoys and meteorological towers under a fiscal 2026 Trump administration budget proposal that cuts roughly $1.6 billion from NOAA. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250421-glos-bouys
Trump administration tariffs and diplomatic fallout may jeopardize joint conservation programs protecting North America’s largest freshwater system. Read the full story by The Badger Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250421-tariff-impacts
Millions of alewife died over the winter and are now washing ashore. Fear not, however, as the die-off can be seen as Mother Nature’s way of keeping checks. Read the full story by the Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250421-erie-fish-kill
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District will soon start dredging the entrance to Holland Harbor in Michigan to remove shoaling across the federal channel. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250421-lake-michigan-dredging
The recent signing of an agreement between elected officials along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River is a key step toward highlighting the importance of building community relationships across Canada and the U.S. Read the full story by kawarthaNOW.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250421-us-canada-partnership
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says Lake Michigan is down 41-inches from its highest April level that was hit in 2020 and is now down seven-inches from last year. Read the full story by WGHN – Grand Haven, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250421-low-lake-levels
Smoke plumes visible in Metro Detroit likely emanated from a marsh fire across Lake St. Clair on Squirrel Island in Ontario, Canada. Read the full story by the Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250421-smoke-plumes
Victory Cruise Lines is relaunching in April with Great Lakes and Canada cruises. Those include All 5 Great Lakes cruises, which visit Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior, sailing from either Chicago or Milwaukee to Toronto. Read the full story by The Sault News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250418-cruisinggreatlakes-victorycruiselines
The White House Executive Order issued April 9, called “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance,” directs the Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with other cabinet members, to find opportunities to encourage investments in American “maritime prosperity zones”. Read the full story by the Morning Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250418-greatlakes-maritime-trump
Essential functions at the federal Great Lakes research lab that monitors toxic algae blooms and helps forecast Michigan weather have been “crippled” by the Trump administration’s wave of federal firings. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250418-lab-forecast-weather-michigan-trump
Firefighters rescued a northern Michigan man on April 12 after he sank up to his waist in sand on the shore of Lake Michigan near Leland while rock hunting with his girlfriend. Read the full story by the Lansing State Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250418-rock-hunter-michigan
A new designation, if approved, will provide “special protection in perpetuity” to Indiana’s Lake Michigan shipwrecks by designating them as “submerged land preserves.” Read the full story by Northwest Indiana Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250418-indiana-lake-michigan-shipwrecks
The Minnesota Department of Health has updated its advice on how much fish is safe to eat from certain lakes with so-called “forever chemicals.” The changes to the fish consumption guidelines affect about 44 water bodies in 10 counties, in both the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. Read the full story by MPR News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250418-health-dept-minnesota
