Due to environmental, species, and economic shifts in the Great Lakes region, aquaculture may be one method to help fill the gap left by a decline in commercial fishing. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250623-aquaculture
A lake trout tagged as part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Great Lakes Mass Marking Program indicated the fish was 39 years old, making it the oldest coded wire tagged lake trout observed in the program. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250623-oldest-trout
As the Great Lakes Piping Plover recovery effort nears the 40-year mark, the growing population – a record 81 pairs, up from a low of just 12 – is reclaiming long-abandoned nesting territory across the region. Read the full story by Audubon Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250623-piping-plovers
The unique geography and maritime history support a massive iron ore port and legacy in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Read the full story by Journée Mondiale.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250623-two-harbors-iron
The National Museum of the Great Lakes will reveal a recent expansion to the public, including a community education center, leadership center, and additional areas for temporary exhibits. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250623-gl-museum-expansion
Political-driven changes are disrupting U.S. scientific institutions and creating challenges for science in Canada, with Canadian scientists attempting to preserve their work to assert scientific sovereignty in the face of unprecedented destabilization. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250623-scientific-sovereignty
The lake sturgeon population in Michigan and the Great Lakes is on the rebound thanks in part to a collaborative effort between many entities. While efforts span the Great Lakes overall, the sturgeon population in Cheboygan County’s Black Lake has doubled from about 600 to around 1,200 since the start of restoration and stocking efforts more than two decades ago. Read the full story by WILX-TV – Onondaga, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250620-sturgeon-restoration
Researchers have identified a species of blue-green algae in the Duluth-Superior harbor that’s capable of producing harmful algal blooms, which may lead to better monitoring. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250620-algal-toxin-research
Temperatures across Michigan are expected to hit the 90s through the weekend, warm enough to tempt people to swim in the Great Lakes. Lake Erie and Lake Huron have posted readings at or near 70 degrees Fahrenheit, although lake temperatures typically don’t peak until late summer/early fall, according to GLISA. In Lake Superior, though, the high temperatures were in the 58-degrees Fahrenheit range in some places. Read the full story by The Sault Ste. Marie Evening News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250620-lake-temperatures
According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, large die-offs of alewives are typical this time of year. The invasive fish species is sensitive to sudden temperature changes, which can occur as they move from the deeper waters of the lake toward shore in the spring to spawn. Read the full story by WXXI – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250620-fish-die-off
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it may dredge the Grand Haven inner harbor this fall as planned after reaching a compromise with Michigan state regulators to avoid certain areas suspected to contain toxic PFAS contaminants. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250620-pfas-testing
Lakewood, Ohio’s 100-year-old sewer system wasn’t designed to handle large storms. So as part of its efforts to address combined sewer overflows and meet Clean Water Act requirements for its high-rate system at the city’s wastewater treatment facility, the city is planning a $40 million sewer overflow storage tank. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250620-sewage-overflow-storage
Shallow-water ciscoes, a native fish species extirpated from Lake Erie in the mid-20th century, have been rediscovered in a lake in northeastern Pennsylvania. Efforts are underway to determine if the lost native species of fish in Lake Erie can be reintroduced from its descendants. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250620-fish-reintroduction
The U.S. Department of Energy is helping to restart Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert, Michigan, with a loan worth up to $1.52 billion. Local residents say the history of safety problems at Palisades, some of which date back nearly two decades, are cause for concern as the plant is restarted. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250620-nuclear-restart-concerns
The Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven is offering a rare chance to step into the role of a Great Lakes scientist with some expedition cruises coming up this month. The limited-engagement event in partnership with the Annis Water Resources Institute, will give everyone a chance to climb aboard the W.G. Jackson, a working research vessel, to join researchers collecting Lake Michigan data. Read the full story by WSJM – Benton Harbor, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250620-research-cruise
Michigan’s first surf shop is hosting its second annual freshwater festival, Beryl Days, which runs June 20-22 at various locations including the Sleeping Bear Surf Shop, Empire Public Beach Lighthouse and South Bar Lake. Funds will go toward beach cleanups, scholarships for the shop’s junior waterman camps and surf lessons, and lobbying trips to Washington D.C. with the Great Lakes Business Network. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250620-freshwater-festival
NOAA is partnering with university scientists on a forecasting model to help predict where and when the western Lake Erie basin is most prone to develop spikes of algal toxin. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250618-forecast-model-detect-lakeerie-algalblooms-advance
Governor Tony Evers’s Office and the Wisconsin Department of Administration announced the creation of the Wisconsin Great Lakes Coastal Leadership Academy after the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program received a $209,894 grant through NOAA’s Project of Special Merit competition. Read the full story by Seehafer News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250618-federalgrant-new-academy-greatlakes-management
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed a lawsuit against two Wixom-based automotive suppliers for allegedly continuing to release harmful chemicals into the Huron River after multiple violation notices. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250618-state-sues-michigan-companies-toxic-chemicals
Increasingly, residents, legislators and freshwater advocacy groups are calling for municipalities to more carefully consider where the water that supplies data centers will come from and how it will be managed. Even in the water-rich Great Lakes region, those are important questions as erratic weather patterns fueled by climate change affect water resources. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250618-data-centers-illinois
Some passengers on a cruise ship are getting their first taste of the U.P. Tuesday morning, Victory Cruise Lines’ Victory II docked at Lower Harbor in Marquette around 6:30 a.m. Read the full story by WLUC-TV – Negaunee, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250618-victory-docks-marquette-greatlakes-voyage
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will begin applying lampricides to the Cass River in Tuscola and Saginaw counties to kill sea lamprey larvae starting Tuesday, June 17. The applications, which target larvae burrowed in the stream bottom, will be conducted between June 17-26 in accordance with permits from the state of Michigan. Read the full story by the Huron Daily Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250618-sea-lamprey-tuscola-county-cass-river
Peter Frank, 23 years old, left his home in Escanaba, Michigan on June 27, 2024 in the Upper Peninsula and headed east along the shore of Lake Michigan. He paddled through Canada and cut through Lake Ontario before taking rivers to the Atlantic Ocean and down the east coast to Florida. Now he is starting the long journey northward and back home. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250618-michigan-adventurer-upper-peninsula-to-florida
More land at the tip of Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula has been protected as a nature reserve, with two levels of government providing funding to buy the approximately one kilometre section of shoreline. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250618-conservationgroup-indigenous-name
A groundwater report made public by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection indicates contamination from the shuttered Erie Coke site is migrating toward Lake Erie. Read the full story by YourErie.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250618-contamination-erie-coke-dep-reports
Federal and Michigan state officials joined to mark the opening of a resort on a former Superfund site in Houghton this week. The Keweenaw Waters Resort is a 25-acre waterfront campground on the former Michigan Smelter Tailings site. Read the full story by WNMU-TV – Marquette, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250618-resort-opens-superfund-site
Great Lakes piping plovers are getting busy replenishing the species’ numbers. With 82 pairs confirmed, conservation officials stated this year is a record-breaking nesting season for the federally endangered shorebird. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250616-plover-record
As a major transportation hub for plastic, Lake Erie’s water system is prone to plastic exposure. This summer scientists are studying how pre-production plastics can leach chemicals when they find their way into water systems. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250616-erie-plastic-research
A new book explores wild rice’s role in Indigenous cuisine, its habitats and its deep connection to Indigenous identity in the Great Lakes region. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250616-new-book
An effort to restore grayling in Michigan is entering a new phase. Michigan DNR provided 400,000 eggs to be released by Native American tribes to stock in rivers as the reintroduction plan moves ahead. Read the full story by Sault Ste. Marie Evening News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250616-grayling-restoration
The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is warning people to avoid Lake Erie at Edgewater Beach after heavy rains caused a sewer overflow. Read the full story by WKYC-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250616-sewage-overflow
A Chicago native known as the Great Lake Jumper leaps into Lake Michigan every morning for the solitude and a splash of rejuvenation. This past weekend marked five years of daily lake jumps. Read the full story by Block Club Chicago.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250616-chicago-jumper
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has detected levels of the harmful toxin, microcystin, in Lake Erie weeks earlier than it is usually detected in routine water tests. Read the full story by the BG Independent News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250616-erie-toxin-early
Every summer, boaters and swimmers descend on Wisconsin’s 15,000 lakes to vacation and frolic in the water, but this comes with a cost. Homeowners on these lakes are taking steps to protect water quality, regulate boating and restore habitats. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250616-wisconsin-water-protections
While most are ready for summer temperatures, the Great Lakes want to hold that heat back. The Great Lakes water temperatures aren’t much colder than normal right, but they are still cold compared to the air temperatures of this time of year. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250616-chilly-waters
An estimated 6,000 boats, ships or other vessels have sunk in the Great Lakes, with about 1,500 of them in Michigan’s waters and some within just a 90-minute drive from Lansing. Read the full story by Lansing State Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250616-michigan-shipwrecks
Beaches are tested regularly in Michigan by the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and their statuses are updated frequently. Over Father’s Day weekend beaches in Chippewa and Muskegon County were closed for high bacteria levels. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250616-beach-closings
A gold pocket watch connects a Lake Michigan beach town to an English port town. It’s a homecoming 165 years in the making, weaving invisible strings between a British parliament member, a deadly shipwreck, treasure hunters and Michigan’s foremost expert on the ‘Titanic of the Great Lakes.’ Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250613-titanic-greatlakes-goldwatch
The Lottie Cooper was built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in 1876 when three-masted cargo ships were common on the Great Lakes, moving goods from port to port. In the summer of 1993, the remains of the Lottie Cooper were put on educational display at the lakefront along Broughton Drive, where she continues to tell the story of early maritime shipping near Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Read the full story by the Sheboygan Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250613-wreckage-display-sheboygan-lakefront
Swarms of mayflies are beginning to appear in the southern part of Michigan, signaling the start of the yearly mayfly hatch. Mayflies are a familiar sight near many Michigan lakes when they emerge or “hatch” from the water as flying adults. Read the full story by The Herald Review.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250613-maylies-southern-michigan
The recently released documents reveal numerous programs that would be zeroed out under $1 billion in cuts to federal grants nationwide. They include programs that manage state and local air quality, control water pollution and clean up or redevelop contaminated sites. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250613-wisconsin-pollution-protections
After seeing the degradation of the Pine River, running from Ripley, Ontario, to Lake Huron, citizens came together to try and rehabilitate their waterway. With the approval and assistance of local farmers and landowners, Pine River Watershed volunteers have planted 365,000 trees, installed 21 berms to control field run-off, and helped install 24 kilometres of fencing to keep livestock out of the Pine River. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250613-volunteers-plant-trees-local-river
In a move to refine and recalibrate its stewardship, the Wisconsin DNR is crafting a new regional master plan for Lake Michigan coastal communities, and they’re inviting Wisconsinites to have their say. Read the full story by Hoodline.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250613-wisconsin-dnr-southern-lake-michigan
The annual Lake Erie harmful algal bloom prediction has received an upgrade that could make it more accurate. Read the full story by the Port Clinton News Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250613-lakeerie-algalbloom
Repairs to the Fort Wilkins Historic State Park on the shores of Lake Superior are part of a proposed 10-year plan in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250613-repairs-newplayground-lakesuperior-statepark
Recent funding and staffing cuts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have raised concerns in Canada about invasive lamprey population. Sea lamprey control is managed binationally by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Canada and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Read the full story by TBNewsWatch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250613-lampreys-passports-greatlakes
Michigan health officials have dramatically reduced the amount of PFAS-tainted fish they consider safe to eat, tripling the number of waterbodies where anglers are warned against eating their catch. Ninety-eight water bodies in the state are now subject to “do not eat” advisories. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250611-michigan-pfas-guidlines
The most recent budget proposals from both the Ohio House and Senate drastically cut funding for H2Ohio, a program with bipartisan support that has helped restore and maintain healthy wetlands, croplands, and initiate river cleanup efforts. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250611-ohio-funding-cuts
A 35-inch, 16-pound lake trout caught by an angler in 2023 out of the port of Sheboygan, Wisconsin contained a coded wire tag that was the oldest on record according to the USFWS. Read the full story by My UP Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250611-oldest-lake-trout
The Trump administration is proposing to shutter the EPA’S Office of Research and Development in Duluth, which would leave over 170 without jobs and jeopardize public access to clean air and water. Read the full story by the Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250611-epa-defunding
