The beginning of April marks the opening of the 2023 Great Lakes shipping season with the first freighter arriving Tuesday night at the Port of Cleveland. Read the full story by WEWS-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230407-shipping-season
Researchers from across northwest Ohio met at the University of Toledo Lake Erie Center in Oregon on Wednesday to clean and calibrate sensors that will be going into Lake Erie in preparation for another summer algal bloom season. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230407-algal-bloom-devicea
Representatives of fifty-one Tribal and First Nations located in what is now the United States and Canada submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council calling on the Government of Canada to stop violating the human rights of Indigenous peoples through its support for Enbridge’s Line 5 crude oil pipeline. Read the full story by Environmental Defence.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230407-line-5
For three days in March the world came together at the United Nations in New York City to discuss ways to place water at the center of decision-making. Public officials, business leaders, and scientists from the Great Lakes region attended the conference, linking global debates about freshwater supply and management with local experience. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230405-united-nations
The federal government says it’s making Canada’s largest investment ever in protecting the nation’s sources of fresh water, including the Great Lakes. Commitments announced by the government during U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit and in the recent budget bring the federal government’s total investment to $750 million. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230405-canada-investment
A massive sewage discharge into Lake Erie over the Christmas holidays has Niagara Region reviewing policies and making improvements at its Crystal Beach wastewater treatment plant in Ontario. Read the full story by The Record.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230405-discharge
New research reveals the progress scientists at The University of Toledo are making in their ongoing efforts to capture and remove invasive grass carp from the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Science Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230405-grass-carp
On March 30, a lawsuit was filed against H. Wood Farms in Jefferson County, New York, with claims that runoff from the over 2,000-cow dairy farm has previously polluted nearby creeks that run into the St. Lawrence River. However, the Wood Farms President and Co-Owner said these accusations are false. Read the full story by WWTI- TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230405-wood-farms
In their annual meeting held last week in the Ontario city of Hamilton, the Lake Erie Committee established the total allowable catches for 2023, a determination of how many walleye and yellow perch can be harvested from the lake. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230405-allowable-catches
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that February 2023 was Earth’s fourth-warmest on record. In the Great Lakes basin, this is being witnessed through less lake ice cover, which is already having major impacts. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230405-ice-cover
The National Weather Service offices across Michigan have issued Gale Warnings for parts of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron ahead of the approaching storm system. Lake Superior’s conditions are expected to be especially dangerous. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230405-storm-winds
Of the 945 charter boat guides licensed in Ohio, there are 18 who are female, and only two in Ottawa County. Earning success in a male-dominated profession is a significant accomplishment, but the discrepancies between them and their male colleagues pretty much end there. Read the full story by The Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230405-female-captains
The National Museum of the Great Lakes will explore the uncharted chapter of Great Lakes pirate history on April 19, when Arrgh: A History of Piracy on the Great Lakes comes to the Clinton-Macomb Public Library in Michigan. Read the full story by the Macomb Daily.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230405-pirates
The price tag to build a new mine near Marathon, Ontario has escalated, but Generation Mining is primed and ready to start construction pending the arrival of key government permits. Read the full story by Northern Ontario Business.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230403-mining
Smelt anglers are gathering this spring for what could be their last outings at a favored spot along the Milwaukee, Wisconsin lakefront. A dredge containment facility is being built at the site. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230403-cdf
The groups behind Chicago’s planned overhaul of a key portion of the iconic Lakeshore Drive have revealed the latest renderings of a project that’s set to add much-needed protective barriers and green space along the city’s Lake Michigan shoreline. Read and hear the full story by Archinect.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230403-chicaco-lakefront-project
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources will continue conducting its annual fish surveys using electrofishing methods. Read the full story by Ludington Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230403-electrofishing
Lake Erie barely froze this year, causing major issues for ice anglers. Read the full story by Spectrum News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230403-ice-fishing
One of the world’s last grand Edwardian passenger steamships will make a triumphant arrival at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, Ontario later this year. Read the full story by Ottawa Business Journal .
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230403-historic-ship
Located on the shore of Lake Michigan, Orchard Beach State Park hasn’t had a beach since 2017. That’s when high water levels came up to the 100-foot bluff that the park sits atop and began eating away at it. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230403-beach-restoration
The Canadian Environmental Law Association is giving the federal government a thumbs-up for moving ahead with a Winnipeg-based special agency to oversee the protection of the country’s fresh-water supply. The association “supports the federal investment in advancing science and knowledge on fresh water, and the distribution of those funds to a range of high-priority watersheds across the country, including the Great Lakes.” Read the full story by the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230403-winnipeg
A new study by researchers at Northwestern University shows that people who live in neighborhoods along Chicago’s interstates — particularly I-290, I-90 and I-94 — and in communities directly next to Lake Michigan are exposed to more air pollution than residents in the rest of the city. Read the full story by WTTW -TV – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230403-air-pollution
One year ago, the Illinois DNR, as part of a national initiative, began calling invasive carp “Copi”, a play on the word copious and a reference to the vast number of carp swimming in state waters. Read the full story by The State-Journal Register.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230331-illinoisdnr-copi-rebranding
The Duluth Seaway Port Authority held a first ship welcoming ceremony Thursday morning. The invite-only event happened on the first saltie that came through the port earlier this week. That ship was the Federal Dart, which arrived on Tuesday and made history as the earliest saltie to come through the port of Duluth-Superior in the spring. Read the full story by KQDS-TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230331-duluthseaway-firstship-welcomeparty
Amid PFAS fears, oversimplified warnings could discourage residents from consuming a food central to Ojibwe lifeways. Read the full story by MinnPost.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230331-fishconsumption-greatlakes
Sam Laud, a 635-foot freighter, sounded its ear-piercing horn just after 8 p.m. Wednesday — one long blast and two short blasts to signal its long-awaited arrival to Manistee, MI — that officially begins the shipping season for this Lake Michigan port. Read the full story by the Ludington Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230331-manisteemagic-shippingseason
Lake Michigan’s bounty of fish developed a thriving commercial fishing industry that continues to this day, but on a smaller scale. In the early days, fishing the waters on the lake was noted as early as 1836 by explorers who witnessed local Indigenous people spearing fish. By 1845, four extensive fisheries cemented the industry in Sheboygan, WI. Read the full story by the Sheboygan Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230331-sheboygan-fishshanties
If all goes as planned, a renewable energy revolution could begin in a few years with a pilot project rising just eight miles off the Cleveland’s shoreline, above the waves of Lake Erie. The six turbines will transform wind rolling over the lake into electricity, then supply it to a network onshore. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230331-offshorewind-greatlakes-lakeerie
Returning for 2023, are the annual spring Lake Huron Regional Fisheries Workshops, which are free and open to the public. Whether you have an interest in the offshore fisheries, the Les Cheneaux and St. Mary’s River area or Saginaw Bay, a plethora of information will be presented in coming weeks about the Lake Huron fisheries. Read the full story by Iosco County News-Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230331-environmentalists-lakeerie-oilandgas
A bill introduced to the Ohio House would prevent oil and natural gas drilling under Lake Erie, something environmental activists have been worried about, but the oil and gas industry said the legislation isn’t necessary. Read the full story by WEWS-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230331-environmentalists-lakeerie-oilandgas
In operation since 1990, the ferry is the only legally approved border crossing for hazardous goods in the local area. Trucks carrying dangerous or flammable materials must otherwise cross at Sarnia’s Bluewater Bridge or, illegally, on the 94-year-old Ambassador Bridge. Read the full story by the Windsor Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230331-windsor-detroit-truckferry-shutdown
Michigan’s recurring webinar series on invasive species will return next month. The first session will detail the decades-long binational program to manage the effects of invasive sea lamprey on the Great Lakes. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230331-greatlakes-vampires
This past weekend at Edgewater Park in Cleveland, Ohio, an abundance of dead gizzard shad, a non-native species of fish commonly found in the Great Lakes, was found floating in the water. Read the full story by WEWS-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230329-invasive-fish-kill
As of March 24, all of the Great Lakes remained above their March long-term average levels, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District. Specifically, on Lake Ontario, water levels were eight inches above the long-term monthly average for March and four inches above levels in February. Read the full story by WWTI-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230329-ontario-water-levels
Dredging will start soon on a Lake Michigan channel near Muskegon, Michigan, that otherwise would be impassable to all watercraft. Water depths in the Mona Lake Channel are as low as one foot in some areas. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230329-channel-dredging
In southeastern Wisconsin, starry stonewort, an invasive alga that can significantly harm aquatic ecosystems, is starting to make its way across lakes and rivers. First confirmed in Wisconsin in 2014 at Little Muskego Lake, starry stonewort has been documented on 27 other lakes, including 4 in Southeast Wisconsin. Read the full story by the Kenosha News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230329-invasive-spread
In Newaygo County, Michigan, anglers should be on the lookout this spring for Michigan Department of Natural Resources personnel collecting walleye eggs below Croton Dam. Electrofishing boat crews will collect walleye starting as early as the week of March 27, depending on water temperatures, the presence of ripe fish and other factors. Read the full story by The Daily Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230329-walleye-egg-collection
Previously, researchers have not able to collect much data on Lake Ontario over the winter outside of surface temperatures. Now, an international project between the United States and Canada is studying how the temperature of Lake Ontario below the surface changes throughout the year. Read the full story by WROC-TV – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230329-ontario-study
A Dutch shipping company is set to launch a monthly liner service between Duluth, Minnesota, and Antwerp, Belgium, allowing cargo and containers to traverse the Atlantic Ocean on a regular basis. Starting in May, ships are expected to arrive in the port approximately once a month until the St. Lawrence Seaway closes in late December. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230329-dutch-shipping
On March 27, remains of the wreck of the Emeline, a late 19th-century lumber-carrying schooner that lies in Lake Michigan off Anclam Park in Baileys Harbor, was added to the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230329-shipwreck-historic-register
The Lake Huron Coastal Centre is looking for community scientists to help monitor the Lake Huron Shoreline in Ontario, Canada. A group of volunteers called Coastwatchers collect data on weather conditions, algae blooms, plastic pollution, human activity, erosion, and wildlife once a week from May until October. Read the full story by Bayshore Broadcasting.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230329-huron-volunteers
Canada has pledged a significant increase in spending to improve water quality in the Great Lakes following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, whose administration also has boosted funding for the shared waters. Read the full story Minnesota Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230327-canada-pledge
For two to three weeks each year, the Army Corps of Engineers pulls tons of sludge from the Black River in Ohio. Normally, that material would be poured into a collection facility in the harbor. But by next year, it will find its way farther downriver and, eventually, shipped back out as topsoil or other usable material. Read the full story by the Chronicle Telegram.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230327-dredge-material
The National Park Service is about halfway through the prescribed burns it has planned for this spring to restore and renew natural habitats in the Indiana Dunes National Park, adjacent to Lake Michigan. Read the full story by The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230327-indiana-dunes
Parking was hard to come by Friday night as people made their way into the Soo Locks Park to watch the first freighter officially open the 2023 shipping season in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan. A few hundred people packed the viewing platform at midnight to photograph, video, and talk about the 1004′ x 105′ Edwin H. Gott slowly working its way into the Poe Lock. Read the full story by Soo Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230327-soo-locks
The “status quo” for the Hamilton (ON) Waterfront Trust isn’t among the mix as the new city council pursues a fresh approach to the harbor. That involves studying the arm’s-length agency’s dissolution with the city taking over its functions. Read the full story by the Hamilton Spectator.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230327-hamilton-waterfront
In Michigan, Muskegon River anglers should be on the lookout this spring for Michigan Department of Natural Resources personnel collecting walleye eggs to stock ponds in the state. Read the full story by Up North Voice.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230327-walleye-eggs
A strong geomagnetic storm caused the Northern Lights to be visible over Lake Erie last Thursday night into Friday morning. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230327-northern-lights
It’s important in Northeast Ohio to have places that provide boats with clear access to Lake Erie. The Ohio Department of Resources has released $500,000 for an important project in the Mentor Harbor Channel based on an announcement recently made by state Rep. Callender and State Sen. Cirino. Read the full story by The News-Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230327-odnr-grant
With Great Lakes shipping starting in Duluth-Superior Harbor in Minnesota, changes are expected with less ice and new bulk cargo. Read the full story by Minnesota Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230327-shipping-season
