While many flame retardants are now banned, accumulation in wildlife is still prevalent, with these chemicals being found in almost all the animals studied in the St. Lawrence River. Read the full story by The Conversation.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220715-flame-retardants
Pollution Probe and the Council of the Great Lakes Region are leading the charge to keep our beaches and waterbodies clean through the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup — the largest initiative of its kind in the world, using innovative plastic capture technologies to remove plastic and other litter from the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Toronto Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220715-plastic
If you have spent any time on the beaches of Lake Erie lately, you may have likely noticed a big ship canvassing the water. The NOAA vessel Thomas Jefferson has been canvassing the lake for the past week by using high-tech sonar to help mariners understand what is beneath the water. Read the full story by Erie New Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220715-lake-floor
Lake Superior’s surface temperature is the coldest it has been since 1997 at this point in the year. These cold temperatures could discourage the spawning of invasive species and set native populations up to thrive. Read the full story by WSAW-TV — Wausau, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220713-temperature-spawning
In Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, the Sault Tribe is expanding its walleye stocking program that has released nearly 19 million walleye through the Great Lakes since its inception in 1995. With the addition of a third breeding pond, the program released over two million walleye this year. Read the full story by The Sault News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220713-walleye-stocking
Muskegon Lake, a designated Area of Concern in Michigan, is celebrated as being virtually clean of its industrial past after an investment of over $80 million over more than 30 years. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220713-muskegonlake-restoration
A team aboard the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ research vessel Lake Char discovered the deepest occurrence of lake trout spawning in the Great Lakes at over 400 feet. This study uncovered the mystery of the spawning location and habitat of the deep-water lake trout. Read the full story by Up North Voice.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220713-laketrout-spawning
As the threat of high Lake Ontario water levels worries shoreline communities in New York, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer visited Sodus Point to push for activating FEMA’s $500 million revolving-loan program to help pay for flood-prevention projects. Read the full story by Finger Lakes Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220713-floodprevention-funding
A Leamington, Ontario, environmental group is calling for governmental action to prevent the possibility of destructive flooding due to rising Lake Erie water levels. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220713-flooding-prevention
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy laid out a $250 million plan to repair dams that failed in May 2020, draining Secord, Smallwood, Sandford, and Wixom Lakes. Read the full story by WNEM — Saginaw, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220713-dams-funding
A month after the Illinois DNR officially rebranded Asian carp as copi, Gordon Food Service, one of West Michigan’s largest food service companies, is working to find a supplier to sell Asian carp products. Read the full story by WOOD-TV — Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220713-gordonfoodservice-asiancarp
The base of the food chain across the Great Lakes is changing in ways affecting the top of the food chain, the fish we love to catch and eat, and scientists at the Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota Duluth are trying to find out why. The problems are different in each lake, but start with tiny plants called phytoplankton, microscopic marine algae. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202207011-phytoplankton-greatlakesfoodchain
Until now, the scope of PFAS problems in Illinois remained unknown. More than 8 million people in the state — 6 out of every 10 Illinoisans — get their drinking water from a utility where at least one forever chemical has been detected, according to a Chicago Tribune investigation that included a computerized analysis of test results and a review of court documents, government records and scientific studies. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202207011-illinois-pfas-drinkingwater
While electric boats represent just two percent of the marine economy, industry players see big potential – and see northern Michigan as an ideal place to make an early mark. Read the full story by The Ticker.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202207011-electricboatindustry-michigan
Eighteen lake sturgeon were detected migrating upstream this spring in the Milwaukee River, according to data from the Department of Natural Resources. The number is a modern-era record and was cheered by sturgeon recovery advocates. Read the full story by The Wausau Daily Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202207011-sturgeon-milwaukeeriver
The Motor City was awash with maritime revelry Saturday as the Ocean Navigator cruise ship anchored at the RiverWalk in Detroit, MI for the first Port Days event aimed at showcasing maritime travel on Michigan’s beloved waters. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202207011-portdaysevent-detroit
The Keweenaw Invasive Species Management Area is working alongside other Upper Peninsula cooperative invasive species management areas to survey for native and invasive phragmites in Houghton, Baraga and Keweenaw counties (Michigan). Read the full story by The Mining Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202207011-keweenawinvasivespecies-phrag
This year, partners in the Sault Ste. Marie area have come together to participate and want to invite the local community and partners to take part in this critical clean up initiative on Saturday, July 16, 2022. Since launching in Canada in 1994, the Ocean Wise Shoreline Cleanup Program has expanded across Canada and now into the United States. Read the full story by Superior Media.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202207011-shorelinecleanup-saultstemarie
To meet the growing enthusiasm for Québec City as a cruise destination, the Port of Québec now has a modern terminal as welcoming as the city itself. The cruise terminal was built following consultation with the local cruise industry, which had identified the need for a new terminal to improve the reception of cruise passengers in Québec City and ensure a high satisfaction rate. Read the full story by PortNews.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202207011-portofquebec-terminal
Members of the Superior Watershed Partnership’s Great Lakes Climate Corps, take part in a habitat-improvement project Friday at McCarty’s Cove in Marquette. The day’s activities were to include pulling invasive vegetation and planting native beach grass. Read the full story by The Mining Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202207011-habitatrestoration-marquette
The appetite to get back on the water was clear as Welland’s Canadian Tire Floatfest broke two records last weekend on the Welland Canal, says Angie St. Pierre, the event’s safety and security co-ordinator. “We had more than 2,500 people registered, and approximately 1,800 floated which are both record numbers. said St. Pierre. Read the full story by the St. Catharines Standard.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202207011-tirefloatfest
A Michigan regulatory panel said Thursday that it needs more information about safety risks before it can rule on Enbridge Energy’s plan to extend an oil pipeline through a tunnel beneath a waterway linking two of the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220708-greatlakesoiltunnelplan
When ships come to the St. Lawrence River, it’s what they leave behind that’s an issue for environmentalists, and members of Congress. They’ve penned a letter, hoping for change to protect what’s in the Thousand Islands. Read the full story by WWNY-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220708-stricterballastcontrols
Canada’s Invasive Species Centre (ISC) hopes to eradicate an aquatic plant that forms extremely dense floating mats of vegetation that shades out native vegetation and decreases plant biodiversity first discovered in the Welland River two years ago. Said Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority outreach worker Kerry Royer, “We certainly wouldn’t want it getting into the Niagara River and then move into the Great Lakes.” Read the full story by the St. Catharines Standard.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220708-waterchestnut
Residents of eastern Quebec probably remember the exceptional weather conditions and the very high tide of Dec. 6, 2010. The combination caused flooding along the shores of the St. Lawrence River and millions of dollars in damage to public and private infrastructure. Researchers are now asking when might the exceptional high tides of the St. Lawrence River strike next? Read the full story by the National Post.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220708-hightidegreatlakes
Lake Michigan is considered the deadliest of the Great Lakes. Numbers show Lake Michigan has had the most drownings in the past two years. Now, Racine wants to change that. Read the full story by FOX6 News Milwaukee.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220708-watersafetyenhancements
This year’s Tall Ships Festival in Cleveland will include some of the more disgusting denizens of the Great Lakes – sea lampreys. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission will be on hand with a half-dozen sea lampreys in a tank to publicize the destructive nature of the invasive species and why it’s important to continue controlling its population. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220708-clevelandsealamprey
Gov. Tony Evers appeared in Algoma Thursday, announcing four grants from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program (WCMP) that will impact Kewaunee County, WI. Read the full story by WLUK-TV – Algoma, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220708-wisconsincmp
June has shaped up to be much busier than the same time last year with improved cargo volumes in the Thunder Bay, Ontario port. Both potash and general cargo shipments were up, while grain volumes had a modest rebound. Read the full story by The Chronicle Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220708-thunderbayport
After 100 years of coordinated effort, 98% of all the sea lamprey in the Great Lakes have been eliminated. Researchers are looking towards modern technology to eliminate that last 2%. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220708-sealampreycontrol
Fisheries researchers go to great lengths, or sometimes deep waters, to seek answers to their questions. Recently, an interdisciplinary team of scientists aboard the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) research vessel Lake Char discovered the deepest occurrence of lake char (or lake trout) spawning in the Great Lakes at a depth of over 400 feet off the north side of Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Read the full story by WLUC-TV – Negaunee, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220708-egghunt
Native freshwater mussels have experienced dramatic population declines in the Detroit River due to habitat degradation, water pollution and the introduction of invasive species. Central Michigan University Ph.D. student Shay Keretz will be focusing her dissertation on if and where native mussels remain in the Detroit and St. Clair River. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220706-mussels
Federal officials awarded a more than $1 billion contract to build a new chamber at the Soo Locks after months of scrambling to cover ballooned costs. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220706-soo-locks
Illinois fishery managers rebrand four invasive species of carp as copi. They hope the new name will help the bountiful fish land on more restaurant menus and grocery lists and eventually slow the carp’s march toward the Great Lakes. Read the full story by WBUR-FM – Boston, MA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220706-copi
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio EPA are at odds over the amount of phosphorus the city of Euclid’s wastewater treatment plant can discharge into Lake Erie, and the outcome of their disagreement could have broad repercussions for sewage plant operators elsewhere in Ohio. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220706-phosphorus-dishcarge
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed a plan to manage the Atlantic salmon population in Lake Ontario with an emphasis on improving the survival of stocked fish and increasing the number of adult Atlantic salmon that return to tributaries to spawn. Read the full story by WROC-TV – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220706-atlantic-salmon
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed a plan to manage the Atlantic salmon population in Lake Ontario with an emphasis on improving the survival of stocked fish and increasing the number of adult Atlantic salmon that return to tributaries to spawn. Read the full story by WROC-TV – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220706-atlantic-salmon
The Indiana Division of Fish & Wildlife recently completed spring trout and salmon stockings in Lake Michigan and its tributaries, into which it released more than half a million trout and salmon. Read the full story by The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220706-trout-salmon-stock
A shipwreck that lies submerged in Lake Michigan, about 13 miles northeast of the Sheboygan Breakwater Lighthouse in Wisconsin, has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Read the full story the Sheboygan Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220706-abiah
Every year, in early summer, fields of lupine erupt along the North Shore of Lake Superior, drawing love from many photographers, but over the past ten years the invasive plant has proliferated. Read the full story by Minnesota Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220706-lupine
Following its addition to Michigan’s invasive species watch list last year, beech leaf disease has been found in an area of St. Clair County, according to the Michigan departments of Natural Resources and Agriculture and Rural Development. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220706-beech-leaf
A recent study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that only about half the people in the Great Lakes states are aware of fish consumption advisories and around five million people exceed the recommended fish intake. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220701-fish-advisories
With more than 12.8 million tons of recyclable plastic packaging materials landfilled every year, cleaning up and ending that waste and litter from entering the Great Lakes watershed is the top priority of a Council of the Great Lakes Region initiative. Read the full story by the Welland Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220701-plastic-waste
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced 16 K-12 institutions, school districts and educational partnerships have been awarded $205,028 to develop Great Lakes-based science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) educational programs for students. Among the awardees is the Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District, which will receive $20,000 to help propel new Project Based Learning units in local schools. Read the full story by the News-Review.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220701-stem-education
A public meeting will be held in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula town of Lake Linden Tuesday, July 12 to present plans for removing vast amounts of crushed copper mining ore that’s slowly swallowing a stretch of Lake Superior coastline. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220701-lake-superior-reef
The piping plover is making its last stand along northern Michigan’s west coast, with many of these small shorebirds annually nesting in Michigan’s Manistee and Benzie counties. Read the full story by Midland Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220701-plovers
Michigan health officials are reminding people to avoid surface water foam that could contain harmful chemicals ahead of the Fourth of July weekend. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220701-foam
Since 2014, the Regional Science Consortium has worked to test the waters of Lake Erie for harmful algal blooms, and they’ve shared the test results with state and local authorities to warn the public of potential dangers but without grant funding, their work cannot be done. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220701-hab-impact
The Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth, Minnesota has been awarded a $3 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to continue studying the bottom of the food chain in the Great Lakes — work that includes collecting water samples and boring into lake sediment to learn hundreds of years of history. Read the full story by the Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220701-phytoplankton
This Fourth of July holiday weekend, Wisconsin DNR staff and volunteers with Clean Boats, Clean Waters will be at boat launches statewide for their 2022 Landing Blitz, reminding the public of ways boaters can help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species, which pose great risks to the health of our lakes and fisheries. Read the full story by the Antigo Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220701-ais
