As of Sunday afternoon, 13 vessels had yet to pass through the St. Lawrence Seaway’s final lock near Montreal, Québec. The seaway closes Monday. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250106-ice-delays
Federal regulators have officially revoked the operating license for the troubled Au Train Dam in Au Train, Michigan, citing the owner’s long-running failure to address safety problems and maintain control of the site. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250106-dam-license
Will the Black Lake lake sturgeon fishing season again set a time record in 2026? We’ll find out February 7 when the season begins — and most likely also ends. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250106-sturgeon-season
Detroit’s Gordie Howe International Bridge is set to change the way people cross the Detroit River. For the first time in decades, residents will be able to walk or bike, in addition to driving, into Canada. Read the full story by Bridge Detroit.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250106-international-bridge
Dozens of swimmers took to Lake Michigan in Ogden Dunes, Indiana, as part of an unofficial New Year’s Day polar plunge. The air temperature was 20 while the water temperature was about 35 as swimmers defied the weather to take a brief dip. Read the full story by the Post-Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250106-polar-plunge
Thanks to a perfect mix of wind, waves, and freezing temperatures, Mother Nature has been busy sculpting some incredible ice formations along the Lake Erie shoreline near Cleveland, Ohio. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250106-cleveland-ice
Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has released the annual State of the Great Lakes Report. The report covers environmental cleanup, waterfront restoration, invasive species, groundwater management, and wildlife protection. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-sogl-report
In Michigan, the first payments from a more-than $600 million fund to settle Flint water crisis lawsuits have been made. It’s another step in the years-long effort to compensate people who were hurt by elevated lead levels in the city’s water supply. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-flint-claims
Technology from Chicago and around the world promises to clean up water. An effort in Illinois is trying to speed it to market while navigating new federal funding challenges. Read the full story by Inside Climate News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-water-startups
U.S. Representatives recently introduced a bipartisan bill that seeks to strengthen the Port Infrastructure Development Program to bring critical investments for port infrastructure and intermodal improvements to ports in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by The Ripon Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-port-bill
After 25 years, the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth, Minnesota, is celebrating a standout season that’s benefited the local economy. The year brought record crowds and nearly $43 million for Duluth and officials say even more tourism-related growth is on the way. Read the full story by Northern News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-aquarium-attendance
Winter storms on the Great Lakes have a habit of briefly giving things back — from exposed reefs and forgotten shorelines to shipwrecks that have sat underwater for more than a century. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-shipwrecks-resurface
The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) has started building a new tunnel in southwest Detroit. To reduce the risk of flooding, the project will divert excess stormwater from a large sewer line along the Rouge River to a retention and treatment basin nearby. Read the full story by WDET – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-glwa-tunnel
Little Sable Point Lighthouse near Pentwater, Michigan, went dark this fall and remained in shadow for about a month. Thanks to the unexpected help of a neighbor, this Lake Michigan lighthouse is shining bright again. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-michigan-lighthouse
A historic lighthouse on Lake Superior’s north shore was dropped from cruise ship itineraries after Canada suspended an agreement with a charity managing the site. The move relates to a Pays Plat First Nation land claim that includes Battle Island near Rossport, Ontario. Read the full story by SNnewswatch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-superior-lighthouse
Some of the best surfing is possible during those icy, windy months before the lakes freeze over. Those willing to face the frost actually help boost beachside communities. Read the full story by Marketplace.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-surfonomics
Michigan’s Governor Whitmer and six other governors have signed a petition urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to monitor and collect data on microplastics. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-microplastics-petition
This year’s harmful algae bloom in western Lake Erie was among the mildest in a decade, but the improvement may owe more to favorable weather conditions than fundamental reductions in regional nutrient pollution from agriculture. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-erie-bloom
Last winter, a small buoy off Muskegon, Michigan, broke free from its mooring. Tracking temperature and wave height, it collected data scientists have chased for years: real-time measurements of what happens in the open water far from shore. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-runaway-buoy
Officials from Ogdensburg, New York, are urging federal lawmakers to support a multi-year eradication program targeting invasive water chestnut in the St. Lawrence and Oswegatchie rivers. Read the full story by North Country Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-water-chestnut
Ohio state wildlife officials say thousands of juvenile lake sturgeon were released in four Ohio rivers this year, including the Cuyahoga, as part of an effort to rebuild the endangered species. Read the full story by WEWS-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-sturgeon-release
The Niagara Falls Storage Site received an additional $3 million from cost-recovery settlements to support ongoing cleanup of contaminated soil and groundwater around its radioactive waste containment structure. The current phase of cleanup is expected to finish in April. Read the full story by Niagara-Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-niagara-cleanup
The town of Ogden Dunes, Indiana, said it’s abandoning a project to build a stone barrier in Lake Michigan to protect homes from erosion. This comes after a nearly two-year legal battle with the environmental group Save the Dunes. Read the full story by Indiana Public Broadcasting.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-erosion-barrier
The ruins of a 19th-century Lake Michigan pier south of Kewaunee, Wisconsin, have joined the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places. The remains of Sandy Bay Pier represent how commercial port complexes grew around rural economies along the lakeshore. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-historic-pier
A North East, Pennsylvania resident created an art piece from litter found along the shores of Lake Erie. The 22-by-37-inch piece, titled “Lake Erie Leftovers,” was made from items like toys, golf balls, and lighters. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-trash-art
An author walked along the coast of Lake Michigan 63 miles from Chicago’s North Side to Indiana Dunes and lived to write a book about it. Read the full story by The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-lake-walk-book
While ice does play some role, the results of a new study show the humidity of the air over the lakes has a much more dominant effect on how much water is sucked out of the lakes into the atmosphere. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-lake-evaporation
Under a new rule to protect Wisconsin’s cleanest waterways finalized last week, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is required to conduct a review before regulated entities are allowed to discharge new or increased levels of contaminants into waterbodies classified as “high quality waters.” Read the full story by the Wisconsin Examiner.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-wisconsin-water-rule
As once-abundant Great Lakes whitefish slide toward population collapse, biologists are trying something that would have sounded far-fetched a decade ago: hauling live fish upriver and simply letting them go. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-whitefish-transfer
Herring gull blood and egg samples collected in the St. Lawrence River in Quebec were tested to see how exposed seabirds are to plastic additives called ultraviolet absorbents. Every herring gull sampled was exposed to plastic additives. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-gull-plastics
The Lakehead Region Conservation Authority says Ontario’s plan to merge the province’s 36 conservation authorities into seven larger regional bodies would disconnect Thunder Bay’s watershed from the region it actually serves. Read the full story by the CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-conservation-authorities
Samples collected by researchers aboard the U.S. EPA’s Lake Guardian research vessel in 2014 and 2024 showed an increase in the volume of plastic per square kilometer, suggesting that the volume of plastic in the lake has gone up. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-erie-plastics
Long-polluted waterways near Chicago are part of a system of natural and manmade barriers keeping invasive crustaceans at bay, a recent study suggests. Read the full story by Inside Climate News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-invasive-scuds
The Beaver Head Lighthouse on the south end of Beaver Island, Michigan, was built in 1858. Today the historic landmark is undergoing restoration to prevent deterioration from time and weather. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-beaver-island-lighthouse
A shipwreck from 145 years ago still litters the bottom of Lake Michigan near Frankfort, Michigan, that sparked a haunting mystery that continues to be part of Great Lakes lore: a woman who died lashed to the sinking ship’s mast. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-shipwreck-mystery
The big cold front moving into the Great Lakes region, leading to heavy snow in some areas and high winds and gale warnings on the Great Lakes, is also expected to cause a storm surge on Lake Erie − a phenomenon that can leave shoreline locations looking like the lake drained away. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-erie-seiches
This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed amendments to the Clean Water Act that would leave a majority of the country’s wetlands without federal protections. Counties in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have the most to lose. Read the full story by Circle of Blue.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251121-wetland-protections
After a federal appeals court held that Michigan is not immune to legal action for its decision to revoke a Canadian energy company’s easement to operate a pipeline in the Great Lakes, the Whitmer Administration is seeking an appeal to the United States Supreme Court. Read the full story by Michigan Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251121-line5-immunity
A coal plant on Michigan’s Lake Michigan shoreline which was originally set to shut down at the end of May will continue operating after the Trump Administration issued another extension. Environmentalists decried the extension, emphasizing the effects the plant has on air quality and Lake Michigan’s water quality. Read the full story by Michigan Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251121-coal-plant
A new order from the Michigan Natural Resources Commission will open more of the Great Lakes to recreational spearfishing in 2026. Proponents of spearfishing say that the expanded reach will allow more people to try the sport and could spark more interest in the outdoors. Read the full story by WWTV-TV – Cadillac, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251121-michigan-spearfishing
Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said Thursday that it’s awarding $2.9 million in grants for projects to prevent, reduce, or eliminate polluted runoff and other nonpoint sources of pollution. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251121-egle-grants
People walking, running or launching boats along Lake Erie’s shorelines may have noticed more exposed beach and rock than in recent years — a subtle sign the lake has dipped below its long-term water level average after a period of record highs. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251121-erie-water-levels
The National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio, is holding its annual Christmas Tree Ship event, where the public can watch Santa Claus arrive on a tugboat filled with Christmas trees for families. Read the full story by WTOL-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251121-xmas-tree-ship
After years of debates, the city of South Haven, Michigan, took a significant step toward bringing lifeguards back to its Lake Michigan beaches. Supporters of a new lifeguard program include beach safety advocates and families of drowning victims. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251121-michigan-lifeguards
A new book by a Michigan historian explores how Mackinac Island and the surrounding Straits region became a hub for travelers from across the country. Read the full story by Midland Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251121-mackinac-book
The National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation works to preserve the visitor experience of the five national parks on Lake Superior. The nonprofit is making a major fundraising push to go up against critical headwinds the National Park Service faces. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251121-superior-parks
Several formal ceremonies will mark 50 years since the fateful day since the Edmund Fitzgerald sank. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251103-fitzgerald-memorials
The risk of an Edmund Fitzgerald-type disaster is never zero, but improvements in weather forecasting, Great Lakes bottom mapping, and other safety technology make such a disaster far less likely. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251103-fitzgerald-disasters
Theories about how the Edmund Fitzgerald sank range from striking a shoal and suffering bottom damage, to flooding through the freighter’s hatch covers, to rogue waves, and to structural flaws in the ship. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251103-fitzgerald-mystery
Lake trout have made a strong recovery in Lake Superior thanks to successful lamprey control. This has allowed the Fond du Lac Band to resume subsistence netting for the first time in over 160 years. Read the full story by Minnesota Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251103-superior-trout
