While ice is starting to close in on the Great Lakes, the Soo Locks will remain open until January 15, or until commercial traffic comes to an end. Read the full story by Lansing State Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250107-ice-starts-great-lakes-soo-locks-closing-soon
Recent sightings of the latest class of captive-reared Great Lakes piping plovers on their wintering grounds in Georgia highlight ongoing recovery and tracking work for this small shorebird species, which nests on sandy Great Lakes beaches in summer. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250107-piping-plovers-boys-of-summer-georgia-islands
Powerboat racing is set to return to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in summer 2026 as part of the city’s ongoing hosting of high-speed offshore racing events, continuing a tradition that draws competitors and fans for exciting summer weekends on the water. Read the full story by Sheboygan Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250107-powerboat-racing-sheboygan-august
Michigan’s aging water infrastructure — much of it over 50 years old and underfunded — faces increasing pressure to support growing demand from new data centers while also addressing wastewater, drinking water, and stormwater challenges. The state is seeking more investment and planning to upgrade systems and manage capacity amid public concern and climate‑related stresses. Read the full story by Michigan Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250107-michigan-aging-water-infrastructure-demand-data-centers
New guided tours aboard the historic S.S. Badger will give visitors a behind‑the‑scenes look at areas like the ship’s engine room and pilot house, offering insights into how the last coal‑fired passenger steamship in the U.S. operates. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250107-ss-badger-new-guided-tours
The 2025 breeding season for endangered Great Lakes piping plovers marks another milestone in this species’ remarkable comeback. For the fourth consecutive year, this small shorebird – once on the brink of extinction – has set a new population record high: 88 unique pairs nesting across the Great Lakes region this summer. Read the full story by the National Audubon Society.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-greatlakes-pipingplover-population
In a new lawsuit, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa alleges the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated federal environmental laws when it granted a permit to Enbridge for its proposed Line 5 reroute. Canadian energy firm Enbridge secured a federal permit for the $450 million project from the Army Corps in late October. The company said that permit is not yet final. Read the full story by Iron Mountain Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-badriver-tribe-armycorps-overturn-permit-line5
The educational team at Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is bringing back the free film, Sleeping Bear from Below. The underwater documentary by Inspired Planet Productions shows footage from ROV cameras that captured a “tunnel of salmon” among other aquatic life in the Platte River, Good Harbor Reef, and Lake Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-underwater-film-fish-eye-view-sleepingbear
Each of the five Great Lakes saw an overall decrease in 2025 adult sea lampreys captured, but Lake Superior’s overall population remains above the three-year average. Read the full story by CKNX – Wingham, ON.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-sealamprey-control-working-greatlakes
Experts say that conveyance of water in the St. Clair River area continues and is contributing to lower Lake Huron water levels. This will devastate the Georgian Bay wetlands, make navigation hazardous and make it impossible to get to some cottages. It will be an economic and ecological disaster for Georgian Bay and for the entire coastline including local municipalities. Read the full story by the Manitoulin Expositor.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-lakehuron-water-levels-expected-drop
The U.S. Coast Guard is funding a new round of Great Lakes oil spill research that includes validating spill-tracking models in the Straits of Mackinac, a high-risk shipping corridor crossed by the Enbridge Line 5 oil pipeline. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-coastguard-test-oil-sprill-straits-mackinac
Data from Lake Michigan sport anglers and fisheries biologists showed a decline in chinook weights in 2025, raising concerns that stocking might have to be reduced in coming years. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-chinook-weights-declining-future-stocking
The Great Lakes region, currently struggling with drought, is now threatened by energy-hungry facilities – but some residents are fighting back. Read the full story by The Guardian.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-water-levels-greatlakes-datacenters
Frigid temperatures have returned to the region, and as of Dec. 16, ice is beginning to form on Lake Erie. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that a majority of Lake Erie is ice free. Read the full story by Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-lakeerie-ice-noaa
The Grand Rapids Public Museum and John Ball Zoo have been awarded a grant from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust to support sonar technology for the detection of adult sturgeon. The goal will be to document adult lake sturgeon as they move upriver to spawn and find non-invasive methods of monitoring these lake sturgeon. Read the full story by WGRD – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-johnballzoo-grandrapids-museum-awardedgrant-lakesturgeon
Some ice has started to form along Lake Erie’s western edge, though federal scientists say these patches represent only the earliest stages of freeze-up, not the onset of lake wide ice. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-ice-lake-erie
Earlier this week, the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network announced an interactive mapping tool to help protect Michigan anglers looking to reel in a meal. Read the full story by Michigan Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-pfas-action-group-map-eat-safe-fish
The village of Elberta, Michigan, has been awarded a $5.3 million grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for the development of a waterfront park. The park project will be on 16 acres of property near the mouth of Betsie Bay, including Lake Michigan shoreline, which will eventually be transferred to the village from the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy. Read the full story by Benzie County Record Patriot.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-waterfront-park-elberta
John U. Bacon spent nearly four years researching and writing his new book about the Edmund Fitzgerald. The public has caught on to the new release titled The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-john-u-bacon-edmund-fitzgerald-book
Great Lakes shipping to ports like the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor and the Port of Chicago got off to a strong start in the 66th navigation season. Read the full story by The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-greatlakes-shipping
If the predictions turn out to be accurate, it will be a second year in row of normal ice cover on the Great Lakes – a reprieve, given that winter is changing the most. The season has shortened by several weeks and is becoming increasingly warmer and wetter. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-winter-ice-cover-impacts-greatlakes
Two municipalities in northeast Wisconsin are getting federal funding to replace lead service lines. More than $159 million has been allocated to 29 municipalities across the state, including Manitowoc and Oshkosh, to ensure Wisconsinites have access to clean, safe drinking water that is free of lead. Read the full story by WTAQ – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-manitowoc-oshkosh-replace-lead-water-lines
Michigan House Republicans have unilaterally blocked about $8.3 million in spending aimed at helping residents of Flint deal with the long-term fallout of the drinking water crisis, as the GOP leader, Speaker Matt Hall, said the emergency in the city is over. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-house-speaker-flint-watercrisis
Research shows that the United States would need to invest nearly $3.4 trillion over the next 20 years to sufficiently fix and update its drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. Much of the country’s water infrastructure was built 40 to 50 years ago and is showing its age. Michigan’s is no exception. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-michigan-water-infrastructure-work
The U.S. Coast Guard Sector Northern Great Lakes began ice-breaking operations in the Great Lakes on Wednesday for the winter shipping season. Currently, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Spar will manage the ice-breaking needs of Western Lake Superior, specifically Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin. Read the full story by WXYZ-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-coastguard-ice-breaking-greatlakes
Researchers are beginning to see ice form on the Great Lakes. Historically, ice creation begins in earnest in early December and ice remains on the lakes until late May. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-ice-greatlakes-freezing
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) has confirmed that quagga mussels have been found in the north end of Black Bay on Lake Superior, marking the latest appearance of the invasive species on the lake’s north shore. The mussels were first flagged earlier this month through a post on the iNaturalist app. Read the full story by CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-quagga-mussels-spreading-lake-superior
The outcome of a municipal court trial in Shorewood, Wisconsin, could become a decisive flashpoint over public access to Lake Michigan’s shoreline. Similar legal battles have been settled in other Great Lakes states, but the topic hasn’t been litigated in Wisconsin. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-public-walk-lake-michigan
The piping plover shorebird is a rare sight in Indiana, but here’s why they wear so many colorful bands. Read the full story by the Indianapolis Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-shorebird-bracelets
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is recommending a 39% reduction in the lake whitefish quota for commercial fishers in the Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan but no change in Green Bay. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-dnr-whitefish-harvest-lakemichigan
Despite recent news of data center development in Michigan, the development boom is much more dramatic in Illinois and Ohio, two states that account for half of all operational facilities in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-michigan-data-center-greatlakes
An environmental crisis is unfolding in Lake Erie, where plastic pollution has increased dramatically over the past decade despite widespread conservation efforts. The findings are dramatic in Cleveland, Ohio, but more so near the eastern end of Lake Erie, where researchers found up to 700,000 particles per kilometer – up from just 19,000 a decade ago. That’s surface-area plastic and does not account for whatever has sunk to the bottom. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-lake-erie-plastic-crisis
Canadian builder, owner, and pilot of the houseboat, The Neverlanding, wanted to sail her through the Straits of Mackinac, down Lake Michigan to be in Chicago by Christmas. Wintry weather on the Great Lakes gave him second thoughts. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-huron-homemade-houseboat-captain-thumb
Strong winds that prompted an Environment Canada alert this week have laid bare Lake Erie shoreline not often seen, but they also briefly uncovered a rarely seen shipwreck. Read the full story by the CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-lakesuperior-shipwreck-uncovered
Looking for a holiday gift for a reader who loves the Great Lakes? There are several prospects to consider. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-great-lakes-books-holiday-giftlist
50 years ago on Monday, one of the most “mysterious and controversial” of all shipwrecks on the Great Lakes took place 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan, taking the lives of 29 crew members. Read the full story by WZZM-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251110-edmund-fitzgerald-50th-anniversary
A new era of electrical generation and power demand is taking shape across the eight states of the Great Lakes basin – and with it come potentially treacherous consequences for the region’s environment and its world-leading supply of clean, fresh water. Read the full story by Circle of Blue.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251110-confrontation-energy-water-greatlakes
The tragic sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald has had a lasting effect on family members of the crew and the Great Lakes shipping industry. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251110-edmund-fitzgerald-lasting-effects-families
New research funded by Wisconsin Sea Grant shows Anishinaabe fire practices shaped today’s Great Lakes ecosystems. The region’s forests never existed and can’t continue to exist without people – or fire. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251110-anishinaabe-fire-greatlakes-ecosystems-research
The Edmund Fitzgerald went down in Lake Superior 50 years ago on Nov. 10, 1975. Two journalists have their own stories to tell of the famed vessel. Read the full story by the Manistee News Advocate.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251110-reporters-stories-edmund-fitzgerald-wreck
There are well over 6,000 shipwrecks between the five Great Lakes, the most well-known, of course, being the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. In recent years, especially around northeast Wisconsin, shipwreck discoveries have been on the rise. Read the full story by WLUK-TV – Green Bay, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251110-maritime-experts-shipwrecks-wisconsin
Research from Michigan State University (MSU) is protecting the Great Lakes from a dangerous threat looming specifically in and around Lake Erie. For roughly a decade, MSU scientists have been studying grass carp using acoustic telemetry, which incorporates sound to track populations of fish, where underwater acoustic receivers collect data on fish surgically tagged with acoustic transmitters. Read the full story by Morning Ag Clips.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251110-msu-led-greatlakes-invasive-carp-research
Most reefs are associated with tropical waters and colorful fish, not the Great Lakes, but Saginaw Bay was once the home of many rock reefs. Created by glacial activity, the reefs provided a habitat for the bay’s fish. Over time, reef habitat was lost, buried by sediment due to logging, manufacturing and agricultural activity in the area. Now, efforts are underway to restore this lost habitat. Read the full story by WNEM-TV – Bay City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251110-reef-restoration-saginawbay
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald going down during a violent Lake Superior storm in November of 1975, dozens of swimmers braved those same waters to finish the journey the ship and her crew never could. Read the full story by WLUK-TV – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251110-fondulac-lakesuperior-edmund-fitzgerald-memorial-swim
The city of Manistee, Michigan, will spend an estimated $105,502 to investigate PFAS migration originating from the city’s former landfill site on Adamczak Road. Read the full story by the Huron Daily Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251110-pfas-testing-manistee
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Oct. 29 approved energy company Enbridge’s plans to reroute an aging oil pipeline around a northern Wisconsin tribal reservation. Enbridge wants to build a new 41-mile segment of pipeline around the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to replace a 12-mile segment that now crosses tribal land. Read the full story by Iron Mountain Daily Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251105-army-corps-approves-enbridge-pipeline-wisconsin
Construction is now underway on a $2.2 million project approved this summer for a new trail in Plainfield Township, Michigan. When completed, it will help connect a network of pedestrian trails running from Lake Michigan to mid-Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251105-construction-project-trail-system-lake-michigan
Michigan regulators have finalized stricter pollution controls for the state’s largest livestock operations following a multi-year legal battle over how factory farms manage animal waste. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251105-michigan-tightens-farm-pollution
A unique dataset of shipwreck sonar scans, captured by researchers from the University of Michigan and Michigan Technological University, has been selected for inclusion in the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot. The dataset, known as AI4Shipwrecks, is one of only ten chosen for the national initiative focused on advancing artificial intelligence. Read the full story by Hydro International.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251105-lakehuron-shipwrecks-american-ai-research
A new study from Loyola University Chicago finds that muskrats – the humble, semi-aquatic rodents long overshadowed by beavers – may play a crucial role in restoring the health of the Great Lakes wetlands. Read the full story by WBBM – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251105-loyola-study-greatlakes-wetlands-muskrats
