Wisconsin maritime historians recently discovered a 130-year-old shipwreck, the John Evenson steam tug, in Lake Michigan near Algoma, Wisconsin. The tug was lost in June 1895 while assisting another ship as it was entering the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal. Read the full story by WWMT-TV – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-shipwreck-lake-michigan
The mayor of the city of Muskegon, Michigan, assured residents Tuesday night they can “breathe a little sigh of relief” that their drinking water is safe, following high levels of PFAS found in Muskegon Lake earlier this year. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-pfas-muskegon
On Tuesday, community members helped release nearly 1,800 young lake sturgeon into the St. Louis River near Brookston, Minnesota. The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa invited the community to help with the stocking event as part of a continuing effort to reestablish the species where it once occurred naturally. Read the full story by the Pine Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-sturgeon-release
A piping plover raised at a captive-rearing facility at the University of Michigan Biological Station in Pellston, Michigan, and released near Chicago has successfully made its way south for the winter, arriving in Wilmington, North Carolina. Read the full story by the Wilmington Star-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-plover-migration
Drownings in Michigan this summer have once again put a spotlight on water safety in a state with the nation’s longest freshwater coastline and an abundance of inland lakes. As of Thursday, the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project has tracked 77 Great Lakes drownings in 2024 compared to 85 Great Lakes drownings from last year. Read the full story by The Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-water-safety
Residents and advocacy groups are asking the federal government for a hearing to try to stop the Palisades nuclear plant in Southwest Michigan on Lake Michigan, officially shut down in 2022, from reopening. No closed nuclear plant has ever reopened. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-nuclear-petition
The search and recovery team that found a crash victim and airplane lost 17 years ago in Lake Huron said it’s hoping to help even more people find their lost loved ones. Great Lakes Search and Recovery, a nonprofit that searches for people lost in the water, tries to bring closure to families. Read the full story by CBS News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-search-and-recovery
The Lake Michigan yellow perch population remains very low, and angler catches are far below historical averages. The drops are linked to the arrival of zebra and quagga mussels in the 1990s. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-perch-population
Visitors to Lake Erie beaches have been puzzled by a flood of dead fish – particularly sheepshead, also known as freshwater drum – with thousands washing ashore in areas near Port Bruce and Port Stanley, Ontario. Experts suggest the die-offs were due to upwelling in hypoxic areas of the lake. Read the full story by the London Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-dead-fish
A Chicago water commissioner hopes to put to rest the belief that Great Lakes water, now, or at any point in the future, will be used to solve the water woes of the western United States. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-water-opinion
Several journalists recently gathered at the Ohio Sea Grant/Ohio State University Stone Laboratory research facility for an annual overview of a multitude of issues affecting the world’s 11th largest freshwater lake. Read the full story by The Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-erie-issues
If you’ve walked along the Milwaukee lakefront in the past few weeks, you might have suddenly found yourself amid a swarm of dragonflies. The insects are making their yearly migration south, which includes a several-week stretch passing through Milwaukee. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-dragonfly-swarms
Four piping Plover fledglings graduated out of captivity and made it onto a northern Michigan beach this summer, joining a record-breaking nesting season across the Great Lakes. A total of 124 wild chicks fledged, or grew wings large enough to fly. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-plovers-fledged
The Great Lakes Way is an interconnected set of greenways and water trails stretching from Port Huron, Michigan to Toledo, Ohio on western Lake Erie. Its purpose is to help reconnect people with continentally significant natural resources, promote outdoor recreation with its many benefits, and foster a stewardship ethic. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-great-lakes-way
The placid water of Rondeau Bay in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, is at risk of being exposed to the punishing and turbulent waves of Lake Erie. The barrier beach that divides the bodies of water is being eaten away by erosion. Read the full story by the CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240826-beach-eroding
Two Michigan legislators have introduced bills that would limit sand mining and make it far more difficult to develop on critical sand dunes. The legislation is expected to be officially introduced in September. Read the full story by the Holland Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240826-sand-legislation
Opposition is growing over a proposal to redesignate the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore as Wisconsin’s first national park. Local governments and the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa have come out against the bill, raising concerns about the proposal’s effects on the environment, tribal treaty rights, housing, and infrastructure. Read the full story by the Superior Telegram.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240826-apostle-islands
A cargo ship has run aground near Kahnawà:ke on Montreal’s South Shore after it experienced a mechanical failure. The unfortunate incident does not pose a threat to the environment and no injuries have been reported, but the ship is blocking cargo traffic. Read the full story by the CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240826-ship-stuck
Dozens of historic shipwrecks are submerged in Lake Michigan within the bounds of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Exploring them just got easier: this month, crews installed buoys and mooring lines near 19 of the most popular shipwrecks. Read the full story by Smithsonian Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240826-shipwreck-buoys
Generators at dams built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were shut down decades ago. Michigan has been removing more of those obsolete dams in recent years, but dam removal is no easy task. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240826-dam-removal
The impact of climate change on physical landscapes is the tip of an iceberg, and the psychological effects on individuals and communities are beginning to emerge. Stories from around the Great Lakes highlight the effects of climate change stress. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240826-climate-stress
A fourth-grade boy recently made a startling beachside discovery along Lake Superior: bones. Erosion is eating away at the shoreline of Lake Superior and has begun to encroach on graves at Scandia Cemetery in Duluth, Minnesota. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240826-cemetery-eroding
This month, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation added a brand-new feature to the official “HuntFishNY” app called the “TACKLE BOX.” This feature provides anglers with one stop for waterbody-specific information on fishing regulations, stocking, fishing/boating access sites and more. Read the full story by the Observer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240826-huntfishny-app
A new wetland restoration project has been completed at Little Portage Wildlife Area in Ottawa County near Port Clinton, Ohio. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources project is meant to improve water quality while benefiting surrounding communities and revitalizing the area’s ecosystem. Read the full story by the Port Clinton News Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240826-h2ohio-project-completed
Help is on its way for New York’s Finger Lakes to enhance water quality and combat harmful algae blooms. On Friday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced $42 million to protect and enhance water quality in the eastern Finger Lakes region. Read the full story by Finger Lakes Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240826-finger-lakes-funding
A tribal leader and conservationists urged Wisconsin state officials to reject plans to relocate part of the aging Enbridge Line 5 pipeline in northern Wisconsin, warning that the threat of a catastrophic spill would still exist along the new route. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240816-pipeline-route
The presence of an invasive plant known as water soldier was confirmed in Ontario’s Lake Simcoe for the first time. If left unchecked, water soldier has the potential to invade lakes and rivers throughout Ontario and the Great Lakes basin. Read the full story by Barrie Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240816-water-soldier-found
The County Commissioners Association of Ohio’s Joint Water Quality Task Force agreed that cleaning up the western Lake Erie watershed is falling short, but two questions have been left unanswered: How to tackle the problem and who is going to foot the bill. Read the full story by The Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240816-erie-commissioners
The Mackinac Island Ferry Co. will stop making trips from Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, Michigan, to the island effective Monday, leaving Shepler’s Ferry as the only operating ferry service for the rest of the season. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240816-mackinac-ferry-repairs
Lake Erie’s harmful algal blooms have started sooner and had longer peak periods over the past decade compared to earlier years, newly released data shows. Warming temperatures linked to climate change are a cause, with interactions among species likely playing a role as well. Read the full story by Cleveland Scene.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240816-erie-bloom-shift
After tens of millions of dollars in public funding and decades of work by many, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to remove from its list of Areas of Concern Lake Ontario’s Rochester embayment, which lies between Towns of Webster and Parma, New York. Read the full story by The Democrat and Chronicle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240816-rochester-aoc
Multicolored, foul-smelling algae in the Lake Ontario waterfront of Hamilton, Ontario, has spurred complaints from boaters and residents, with the city testing for toxic blue-green algae and installing warning signs. Rather than clean it up, city staff are focused on tracking toxic algae locations and alerting the public. Read the full story by The Hamilton Spectator.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240816-hamilton-algae
Alpena, Michigan, gateway to the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, offers a fascinating window into the maritime history of the Great Lakes. But beyond its well-known status as a shipwreck haven, Thunder Bay holds many lesser-known stories and facts that deepen its allure. Read the full story by The Sun Times News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240816-thunder-bay
Inland Seas Education Association operates two tall ships, with the bulk of its cruises involving school groups, hosting as many as 200 classrooms a year. The Association has been designated as a Certified Autism Center, providing accessible and inclusive educational experiences for all visitors. Read the full story by WPBN-TV – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240816-inland-seas
The City Council in Yorkville, Illinois, approved applying for an Environmental Protection Agency loan to fund the Lake Michigan water project, joining the DuPage Water Commission, which sources water from Chicago. City officials say Lake Michigan water could be flowing to Yorkville by April of 2028. Read the full story by WSPY – Plano, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240816-yorkville-water
The Apostle Islands could soon become Wisconsin’s first national park, thanks to an effort by several federal lawmakers. Becoming a national park would attract more people to the Apostle Islands, sharing the natural beauty of the islands and shores of Lake Superior. Read the full story the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240726-apostle-islands
For nearly 40 years, the New York Department of Conservation considered the Lake Ontario shoreline from Webster to Parma, New York, to be an Area of Concern (AOC). After four decades of restoration work, regulators recommend removing the lakeshore from the AOC list. Read the full story by WHEC-TV – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240726-aoc-delisting
Researchers have ranked the top 10 most invasive species in the Great Lakes based on the havoc they cause in the ecosystem and their impacts on humans. Read the full story by Newsweek.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240726-most-unwanted
As weather patterns shift, blue-green algal blooms are appearing in areas where they wouldn’t commonly occur. Researchers from the Great Lakes Institute of Environmental Research in Windsor, Ontario, are working to understand blooms in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240726-blue-green-algae
Lake Erie will soon host a pioneering water treatment process, the first of its kind in the U.S., thanks to a partnership involving the Cleveland Water Alliance and a South Korean tech company. Avon Lake Regional Water in Ohio was selected as the testing site. Read the full story by The Morning Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240726-water-treatment
Birds that grow up dining from Saginaw Bay, Michigan, and other polluted Great Lakes sites are far more likely to be infertile, lay eggs with embryos that don’t survive, or raise chicks that fail to develop, according to recent research. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240726-toxic-hot-spot
According to a color analysis of satellite imagery of lakes around the world, Lake Ontario holds the top spot for the bluest lake. Lake Superior ranks second. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240726-bluest-lakes
Activists gathered to mark the anniversary of the 2010 oil spill near Marshall, Michigan, where a ruptured pipeline released about a million gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River. Activists admonished the pipeline’s owner for its safety record and current plans for the Line 5 pipeline in northern Michigan. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240726-spill-anniversary
Registration is now open for a relay swim event that will mark the 50th anniversary of the tragic shipwreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The 17-stage, 411-mile relay swim begins in Lake Superior, where the shipwreck lies, and ends in Detroit, the ship’s intended destination. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240726-shipwreck-swim
As more green infrastructure projects are installed across the state of Michigan, more workers are needed to maintain them. Friends of the Rouge, a Detroit-area nonprofit that manages the River Rouge watershed, is offering a short course about maintaining green infrastructure like rain gardens. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240726-green-infrastructure
After years of detecting harmful algae in Lake Erie’s Sandusky Bay, Bowling Green State University (BGSU) researchers recently discovered that a toxic cyanobacterium called Planktothrix has essentially disappeared. The drop in toxins signals a major improvement in a body of water that millions rely upon for life, work, and play. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240717-reduced-toxins
In 2013, Toronto experienced a massive storm that caused severe flooding, power outages, and significant disruptions. A similar storm hit the city this week, highlighting ongoing challenges with climate change and aging infrastructure. Read the full story by the CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240717-toronto-floods
A new Michigan law is aimed at limiting what can be considered as a “flushable” wipe. Manufacturers are no longer allowed to market the wipes in Michigan as “flushable” and are required to include the words “Do Not Flush” and a symbol dissuading people from sending the sturdy fabrics to sewage treatment plants. Read the full story by WDIV-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240717-flushable-wipes
Billed as the “world’s longest continuously run long-distance freshwater yacht race,” the Bayview Mackinac Race is set to start Saturday. A record-setting 334 boats have registered for the 100th year of the race across Lake Huron to Mackinac Island, Michigan. Read the full story by The Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240717-yacht-race
Two hundred years ago, the Erie Canal helped spread people, ideas, and goods across the U.S. Now, it has become a paddler’s paradise with more than 700 miles of continuous, navigable waterways. Read the full story by the BBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240717-erie-canal
