Whitehall, Michigan, on Lake Michigan was selected to be a stop on the inaugural Kayak Adventure Series, a bass fishing tournament. Whitehall will be the second stop of six for the summer series where anglers will compete to wrangle an 18-inch bass. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240401-bass-tourney
A new memoir details the life of a Great Lakes activist with 50 years of experience in environmental advocacy and leadership. Stories include bringing a live cormorant to a Congressional hearing and providing politicians with a buffet of fish no one could eat because they were highly contaminated. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240401-activist-memoir
The 10-fish limit on yellow perch, imposed a few years ago, will again be in effect in Ohio waters in western Lake Erie. For a number of years, perch have not been reproducing with any sign of vigor within that sizable stretch of lake, and there are multiple theories why. Read the full story by The Columbus Dispatch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240401-perch-decline
In the wake of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, it was reported that freighters on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway lost propulsion, steering, or electrical power more than 200 times between 2012 and 2022. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240329-freighter-power-loss
The Great Lakes shipping season started three days early this month, responding to industry calls to move more cargo amid demand for domestic steel. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240329-shipping-early-start
A Michigan company, Oshki, turns plastic from the Great Lakes into clothes by chopping it down and spinning it into polyester yarn. Watch the full story by WJRT – TV – Flint, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240329-plastic-recycling
On Great Lakes Day 2024, three young conservationists went to Washington, D.C. and shared their passion for the health of the Great Lakes including success stories with the Great Lakes Piping Plover Program. Read the full story by Audubon New York.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240329-plover-protection
The U.S. EPA announced the Sandusky-based Ohio Lake Erie Commission would receive $5.8 million to support underserved communities. These funds will be used to remove barriers and preserve the rich cultural, economic, and environmental role of the Great Lakes for communities across the basin. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240329-environmental-justice-funding
Michigan is slated to get its own chemical recycling facility which would use plastic pyrolysis to turn plastic into fuel. However, environmentalists are weary of the byproducts and legislative roadblocks are currently in place. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240329-chemical-recycling
The debate over Line 5 in both Wisconsin and Michigan could complicate election-year politics, particularly as candidates compete to win voters over on environmental issues, fossil fuel reliance, or jobs. Read the full story by The New York Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240329-line5-politics
The Great Lakes region, once the heart of American industry, now offers a unique capacity for absorbing climate migrants due to its ample water supply and mild climate risks. Read the full story by Environmental Health News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240329-climate-sanctuary
A 2014 report released by the U.S. Department of Energy gave the green light to establish wind energy projects in the Great Lakes. Despite this, nearly a decade later, wind farms have yet to become established. Read the full story by Outdoor News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240329-wind-energy-funding
A portion of the St. Marys River has been closed to vessel traffic after a 714-foot U.S.-flagged Great Lakes freighter struck a channel light in the waterway. Read the full story by Marine Link.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240329-st.marysriver-freighter-strike
Ottawa Sands County Park on Lake Michigan near Grand Haven, Michigan, will be closed to the public until later this summer as construction continues on numerous improvements to facilities, including treehouses, yurts, and campsites for overnight stays. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240327-lakemichigan-park-closing
A new study suggests microscopic plastic particles are reaching corners of the world untouched by people, including remote bodies of water in Ontario north of Lake Superior. Read the full story by WJBK-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240327-microplastics-greatlakes-newstudy
In the 76 days of the 2023 domestic icebreaking season, six U.S. icebreakers combined to deliver 719 hours of icebreaking assistance to the benefit of 52 vessel transits; 18 of these movements required direct icebreaking assistance to ensure commercial vessel safety. Read the full story by WWTV- Cadillac, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240327-coastguard-greatlakes-icebreakers-52vessels
Every fish studied recently in two southeast Michigan watersheds contained at least one of 14 PFAS health-threatening chemicals. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240327-toxicchemicals-lakemichigan-fish
Lake Zurich, Illinois, village officials approved new measures last week for a $154 million project that will transition the town’s water source to Lake Michigan, but it comes at a price for its residents. The project will be the most expensive infrastructure project in the village’s history. Read the full story by the Lake and McHenry County Scanner.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240327-lakezurich-150million-project-lakemichiganwatersource
Navigating vessels in the Great Lakes might seem a lot easier than spending weeks on the open ocean. However, that doesn’t mean Great Lakes crews are any less vigilant, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association. Read the full story by WPBN-TV – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240327-greatlakes-shipping-safety
Environment and Climate Change Canada says ice cover on the Great Lakes reached a record low this winter. Experts say that ice cover on the Great Lakes has declined about 75 percent in the last 50 years. Read the full story by CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240327-icecover-low-greatlakes-environmentcanada
Tribal communities have long faced barriers to clean drinking water and testing. The Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center, based in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin, aims to help tribal schools, childcare centers and after-school programs across the Great Lakes region ensure their water is safe through its free drinking water testing program. Read the full story by WUMW – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240327-freewatertesting-tribalschools-greatlakesregion
The Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, opened the Poe Lock to all marine traffic at 6 p.m. Eastern on Friday, March 22, marking the start of the 2024 Great Lakes shipping season. Read the full story by the Daily Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240325-shipping-season
The owner of the decommissioned Palisades nuclear power plant on the shores of Lake Michigan about five miles south of South Haven, Michigan, is better known for decommissioning nuclear plants. Its endeavor to restart the plant is one that has never been attempted in the United States. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240325-nuclear-plant-restart
Alongside the lack of ice coverage, unseasonable winter temperatures in the Great Lakes region are creating the conditions for the proliferation of invasive species, strain on the lakes’ natural, temperature-driven stratification process, and the rise of toxic algal blooms. Read the full story by the Daily Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240325-climate-impacts
The regional grid operator that oversees electric reliability in 15 states, including nearly all of Michigan, recently released a series of proposed transmission projects aimed at stabilizing the power grid in the future as more renewables come online and coal plants retire. However, the up to $23 billion plan left out one notable project: an underwater cable across Lake Michigan connecting the lakeshore with eastern Wisconsin. Read the full story by Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240325-power-supply
On World Water Day, the Canadian government announced $800,000 in funding to improve water in the Saint Lawrence River. The money from is being used for initiatives that are part of the Saint Lawrence Action Plan that began in 2011 and runs until 2026. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240325-water-quality-funding
Explorers from the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association have discovered and identified the remains of the steam barge Milwaukee, which sank in 1886, about 40 miles west of Holland, Michigan. Read the full story by WXMI-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240325-shipwreck-discovery
The northwestern Ontario site being considered for a nuclear waste repository is safe for that use, according to the industry-funded organization tasked with creating a repository. So is the other site on the shortlist for the proposed deep geological repository, according to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. Read the full story by MidlandToday.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240325-nuclear-repository
Ohio’s Bowling Green State University recently received a new high-resolution mass spectrometer that university researchers call a “game-changer” for improving water quality in the Great Lakes region and beyond. Read the full story by The Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240325-bgsu
The 2023-2024 season marked the warmest winter on record for the lower 48 states, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The change in the weather has had an outsize impact on the festivals, events and tourism that define the Great Lakes identity. Read the full story by CNN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240325-winter-impacts
To prevent the movement of invasive carp into the Great Lakes, the states of Illinois and Michigan and the Army Corps of Engineers need to sign an agreement, but for months they have been locked in a stalemate over what comes next. Read the full story by WBEZ – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240322-invasive-carp-prevention
The U.S. Department of Justice and environmental groups filed two lawsuits against Campbell Soup in Napoleon, Ohio, accusing the company of allowing wastewater and pollutants to flow unchecked into the Maumee River, which flows into Lake Erie, for years. Read the full story by CBS News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240322-pollution-lawsuit
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is challenging a decision that federal courts have jurisdiction over the future of Enbridge Energy’s Line 5. That’s after a judge moved her legal challenge from the Ingham County Circuit Court to a U.S. district court. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240322-pipeline-litigation
A combination of sand movement and awareness of who to contact are likely why so many more shipwrecks were discovered in Lake Michigan last year. It’s possible that water level changes caused the sand bars to shift dramatically, uncovering shipwrecks in shallower waters. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240322-shipwreck-discoveries
For World Water Day, the Ontario Salt Pollution Coalition is sounding the alarm on the damage done by road salt and is calling on the province of Ontario to do more to mitigate the risk of contamination to groundwater, rivers, lakes and drinking water. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240322-water-advocacy
Staff from the Superior National Forest and three Bands of Chippewa Indigenous Nations recently met in Grand Portage, Minnesota, to engage together on “Shared Learning for Co-Stewardship.” The two-day training addressed Indigenous tribal sovereignty, treaty rights and trust obligations, traditional ecological knowledge, and tribal stewardship priorities. Read the full story by Red Lake Nation News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240322-stewardship-training
Legislation that would establish a framework for Pennsylvania to develop a wind energy industry off its Lake Erie coast cleared an early hurdle in the Pennsylvania General Assembly on Tuesday. Read the full story by Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240322-wind-development
Friends of the Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary announced their children’s program lineup for this year’s Summer in the Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan. The program is designed to get kids interested and involved with the Great Lakes through educational and immersive activities that get them near, on, and even under the water. Read the full story by The Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240322-childrens-programs
The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary is one of 15 places in the country that have received the marine sanctuary designation from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan coast is home to dozens of shipwrecks that represent and preserve both a moment frozen in time and a window into the past. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240322-marine-sanctuary
On March 21, 1953, the now historic S.S. Badger set off on its maiden voyage on Lake Michigan. The S.S. Badger and its sister ships are the last — and the largest — coal-fired, steam engine car ferries built in the United States. Read the full story by WWTV-TV – Cadillac, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240322-car-ferry-history
Sitting at 26 miles long and 24 miles wide with nearly one-third of the sport fishing catch annually in the Great Lakes region, Lake St. Clair should be a household name. While not as well-known as the Great Lakes, this lake has a lot to offer. Read the full story by Great Lake Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240320-lake-st-clair
On World Water Day, March 22, the Alliance for the Great Lakes, Ocean Conservancy, Illinois Environmental Council, and Loyola University scientists will hold a briefing with partners at the Museum of Science and Industry to discuss protecting the Great Lakes and waterways from the environmental and health risks of microfiber pollution. Read the full story by the Ocean Conservancy.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240320-great-lakes-water
The Ford government is facing fresh questions over its plans to redevelop Ontario Place after new documents suggest the province considered filling in a portion of Lake Ontario to create a new development space. Read the full story by Global News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240320-ontario-place
As national parks around the country try to raise awareness about climate change, those around Lake Superior are taking steps to cut their emissions. The foundation and the National Park Service announced last week that the parks are starting to implement plans to get their operations off fossil fuels. Read the full story by Michigan Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240320-lake-superior-parks
The hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive insect that threatens millions of Michigan’s native hemlock trees, has been discovered near Torch Lake in western Antrim County, according to the Michigan Invasive Species Program. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240320-hemlock-woolly-adelgid
Wisconsin is adopting its biggest change to walleye fishing regulations since the 1940s. Starting April 1, the state’s bag limit for the prized game fish will fall from five to three walleye per angler. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240320-walleye-baglimit
For years, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and other tribes of the Great Lakes region have been leading a fight against the Canadian oil giant Enbridge Energy. Enbridge’s 71-year-old Line 5 oil and gas pipeline, which trespasses through sovereign tribal lands, is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Read the full story by the Chicago Sun Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240320-line-5
A public hearing was held on March 11 by Michigan’s Alabaster Township Board of Trustees, to learn about the Parks and Recreation Committee’s trail enhancement proposal for the Lake Huron Coastal Preserve, which is proposing an Accessibility Development Project on the shoreline that is 100% wheelchair accessible. Read the full story by Iosco County News-Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240320-lake-huron-coastal-preserve
The Soo Locks will officially open the Poe Lock to all marine traffic at 6 pm March 22nd, marking the start of the Great Lakes shipping season. Read the full story by the Keweenaw Report.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240320-shipping-season
An hourlong presentation about western Lake Erie was made Monday to a Washington-based policy center with ties to Congress, an online event that reminded viewers they are about three months away from battling another season of toxic algal blooms. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240320-algae-webinar
