The high concentration of microplastics in the Great Lakes is causing issues for humans and wildlife, and recycling alone will not remedy the problem. Read the full story by the Hamilton Spectator.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220720-miroplastics
With the improvement of water and wildlife conditions within the Rochester, New York, embayment of Lake Ontario, health and environmental agencies are seeking public input on the proposed elimination of the Area of Concern designation. Read the full story by the Rochester Business Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220720-rochester-embayment
A harmful algae bloom that can be toxic to humans and aquatic life has been spotted in western parts of Lake Erie over the past couple of days. The type of algae present in this algae bloom has been identified as Microcystis cyanobacteria. Read the full story by WKBN-TV – Youngstown, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220720-algae-bloom
A recent meeting of the Pennsylvania Senate’s Game & Fisheries Committee focused on the recovery of fish populations and water quality in Lake Erie, as well as the need for more funding to promote tourism for the area. Read the full story by The Center Square.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220720-erie-hearing
For the first time in four years, local, tribal, and state groups came together with the U.S. Coast Guard to train for disasters on the Great Lakes. Drones, self-driving personal watercraft, and other remote-controlled water vehicles took center stage on Lake Huron. Read the full story by WPBN-TV – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220720-oil-spills
Working with the organization Save the River, 34 members of U.S. Congress have sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lobbying for stricter ballast water discharge standards. Read the full story by WRVO- Oswego, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220720-ballast-standards
Awaiting state budget approval, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy could soon be building a jetty in the first step to clean up mine waste from Buffalo Reef on Lake Superior with the help of six additional agencies. Read the full story by WLUC-TV – Marquette, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220720-egle-jetty
A group of Duluth, Minnesota, high school students has collaborated with their peers in Petrozavodsk, Russia, to produce a video celebrating their shared connections as residents of communities located on two of the largest freshwater lakes in the world — Lake Superior and Lake Onega. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220720-student-connections
The Great Lakes Water Authority announced that they’ve denied about 24,000 claims from victims of last year’s extensive southeast Michigan summer flooding after a probe found that heavy rainfall was the primary cause, not the electrical problems at two east-side pumping stations that reduced the ability to pump wastewater. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220720-flooding-claims
A parade and ceremony will take place today in Thunder Bay, Ontario in recognition of 60 years of Canadian Coast Guard service. The event will celebrate the critical contribution and role of the Canadian Coast Guard in maintaining and policing the waterways of the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Seaway System since 1962. Read the full story by Lake Superior News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220718-coast-guard
Celebrated every year on the third Sunday in July, Lake Superior Day is a day to bask in the glory of the largest of the Great Lakes. Read the full story by WDIC-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220718-lake-superior
Dr. David Philipp, a professor at the University of Illinois and a Director of the Fisheries Conservation Foundation has been studying the bass populations in eastern Ontario lakes for decades. He argues that though the bass season opened June 18 this year, males were still guarding their broods contributing to increased nest predation. Read the full story by Smiths Falls Record News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220718-fish-spawning
Even though this is the first year for the Viking’s cruise ships on the Great Lakes, commercial cruising has been slowly expanding in the lakes the past decade, with the exception of the initial pandemic years. 2022 may be setting records, with nine cruise ships setting sail this season, four of them new ships making their inaugural trips through the locks and into the lakes. Read the full story by Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220718-cruise-ship
The state of Michigan may no longer plant brown trout in Lake Huron in Northeast Michigan, as efforts to release them yielded only about 2% survival. Instead, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is planning to release brown trout in other areas where they believe the survival rate is higher. Read the full story by The Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220718-brown-trout
Kevin Ailes began researching the wreck of the Milwaukie, a ship that went down in a fierce winter storm near Saugatuck in November of 1842. It’s one of the earliest known shipwrecks along the West Michigan lakeshore. Read the full story by UpNorthLive.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220718-shipwreck
Ontario’s electricity system is searching for more power producers as demand rises and a major nuclear plant nears retirement, a process likely to secure more natural gas generation while the government seeks to end reliance on it. It means that for at least the next two decades, greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector are set to increase. Read the full story by The Canadian Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220718-energy-nuclear
The former Marmoraton iron mine in Northland, Ontario is being considered for a pumped energy storage site potentially powering 1,000 homes through the stored hydropower, but financial concerns remain. Read the full story by The Narwhal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220718-energy-pump
On Saturday July 16th, the 98th Bayview Mackinac Race took place as more than 170 sailboats headed out onto Lake Huron. Read the full story by Times Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220718-sailboat-race
The town of Euclid, OH located about 15 minutes northeast of Cleveland, has had fish wash up on their shoreline over the past week. View the full story by WOIO-TV – Euclid, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220718-dead-fish
In the Great Lakes basin, public water supplies and industrial water consumption are continually both the largest users and consumers of water, but overall usage of Great Lakes water has gone down in recent years according to the Great Lakes Commission’s most recent water use report. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220715-water-consumers
Great Lakes officials are using tech to scan the web for businesses selling invasive species. The Great Lakes Commission is testing a web-crawler that scans for websites selling invasive species that could harm the Great Lakes. Read the full story Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220715-gldiatr
Michigan’s fisheries will be getting a $34 million boost from the state’s new budget, which will go to infrastructure upgrades at Michigan’s aging fish hatcheries and replacing an outdated Great Lakes survey vessel. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220715-fish-budget
The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System, a 300-mile freshwater system that includes both Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, has seen a steady increase in traffic since the start of its 2022 navigation season with few supply chain issues. Read the full story WWTI-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220715-supply-chain
Beyond the health risks of algal blooms, Toledo, Ohio residents are paying the price for this ever-present threat. According to a report released in May by the nonprofit Alliance for the Great Lakes, the city of Toledo spends, on average, $18.76 per person annually on algal bloom monitoring and treatment, making water bills unaffordable to many. Read the full story by Grist.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220715-water-cost
The group Citizens Against Wind Turbines In Lake Erie held an informational meeting Tuesday night in Hamburg, New York calling for a moratorium on offshore turbines in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by WGRZ-TV – Buffalo, New York.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220715-wind-turbines
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced on Wednesday that it received a $150,000 grant to expand K-12 environmental education in the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River watersheds. Read the full story by the Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220715-education
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
