After years of fishing companies closing, Lake Superior is adding on a new fishery this month in northern Wisconsin. The new company, Red Cliff Fish Company, will work with tribal fisherman to sell sustainably caught fish. Read the full story by Spectrum News 1.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201112-new-fish-co
Just as she regularly wrestles 50-pound boxes of clay into her studio to shape into vessels adorned with symbols of nature as part of her artistry-turned-business, Sharon Moen—as the newest member of Wisconsin Sea Grant—has some molding to do in her role as outreach specialist focused on the Eat Wisconsin Fish initiative.
Moen will be fashioning the parts of the existing initiative into new forms. She’ll fire them into rejuvenated and brand-new tools to serve commercial fishermen, charter fishermen, processors and aquaculture operators, as well as educating consumers, retailers and those in the culinary world about the benefits of local, healthy and delicious Wisconsin fish.
This is all, of course, to be done against the backdrop of a once-in-lifetime pandemic that is affecting businesses of all types—particularly hitting hard those tied to the fish supply chain—and reaching into family homes where people are making food decisions in a disrupted world.
A Washington Post story from late spring noted that with restaurants closed the nation’s fisheries, across all regions and species, have reported sales slumps as high as 95 percent. Some species are considered more luxury choices and with the economic hit from Covid-19 perhaps grocery budgets aren’t putting fish on the household menu. Americans spend more than twice as much on seafood in restaurants than they do at home.
Into this scenario steps Moen, who may be new to Wisconsin Sea Grant but is far from being new to serving Sea Grant stakeholder needs and immersing herself in Great Lakes issues having spent 21 years with Minnesota Sea Grant. She was the program’s senior science communicator prior to her departure from that program in April of this year.
“It’s an honor to be a public servant again,” said Moen. “The pandemic has revealed many things about the U.S., including how easily our food systems can be disrupted. I’m ready to channel creativity and moxie toward helping people value Wisconsin’s commercial fisheries and fish-producing operations in ways that support jobs, the state’s food independence, the environment and human health. I’m excited to be joining a great team of Sea Grant’s staff and researchers on this important project.”
Moen will tackle a needs assessment of various sectors to inform a strategic plan on how to best proceed to address challenges, perhaps through webinars, one-on-one communication social media and/or the Eat Wisconsin Fish website. She’ll rely on some previously funded Sea Grant research on fish farmers, as well as another on consumer perception on aquaculture.
“We are really excited about all the relevant experience that Sharon brings to Wisconsin Sea Grant. She has worked on past successful outreach and communications campaigns to promote farm-raised and wild-caught fish, including chef competitions and public tastings,” Sea Grant Assistant Director for Extension David Hart said. “Sharon is a gifted writer and contributed to a strategic plan for aquaculture in Minnesota. She has extensive connections throughout the Sea Grant network and will be able to hit the ground running.”
About that pottery, in her off hours, Moen will continue to create objects of utility and beauty, as well as embracing macro projects. She is currently making 140 specialty tiles for a kachelofen, a German masonry stove that will heat a vacation home on one of Wisconsin’s many lakes. This proves, once more, Moen’s skill at merging two careers and two passions from the clay of the Earth and the wonders of water.
The post Meet Sharon Moen, new Eat Wisconsin Fish outreach specialist first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.
News Releases – Wisconsin Sea Grant
News Releases – Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/meet-sharon-moen-new-eat-wisconsin-fish-outreach-specialist/
Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2020/11/12/lockdown-clears-michigan-air/
Across Michigan and throughout the nation, cherished landmarks are threatened by record crowds as budgets and staffing at properties managed by the National Parks Service have failed to keep up with their skyrocketing popularity. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201111-shorelines
A plan that has addressed coastal erosion in multiple Ohio counties with frontage on Lake Erie through the creation of special improvement districts could be coming to Lorain County. Read the full story by The Chronicle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201111-lorain-improve
The Minnesota Supreme Court is weighing whether the groundwater around U.S. Steel’s leaking Minntac tailings basin should be regulated as drinking water, and Minnesota regulators say the outcome could have vast impacts on other water permits throughout the state. Read the full story by the Duluth News-Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201111-water
On stretch of Lake Superior shoreline between Marquette and Big Bay, Michigan, deep emotions surrounding economic viability and environmental sustainability are colliding. A feasibility study is being conducted to build a vertical rocket launch site. Read the full story by the Upper Michigan Source.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201111-rocket-launch
An estimated 9,887 metric tonnes (22 million pounds) of plastics make their way into the Great Lakes every year. Now a new project aims not only to suck out some of that plastic but stop it from getting into the lakes in the first place. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201111-plastic-pollution
In Michigan, after a $3.9 million dredging project to protect a Lake Superior fish habitat was completed over the summer, workers are back at it as high-water levels and forceful fall storms push mining pollution back toward Buffalo Reef. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201111-whitefish-superior
In Ontario, the Royal Botanical Gardens is receiving a chunk of funding from a $5.1 million federal investment in protecting and restoring the Great Lakes. The money will go toward 46 projects that aim to improve the quality of the Great Lakes through the Great Lakes Protection Initiative. Read the full story by Y108 – Hamilton, Ontario.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201111-restoration
This year, “the gales of November came early.” In his haunting ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” Gordon Lightfoot sang of a very real phenomenon: 40% of all Great Lakes shipwrecks have occurred during the month of November. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201111-gales
The most notable Great Lakes ship to go down during the gales of November is the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. There is another ship, however, that was taken down in November — the Schooner Pathfinder. Read the full story by the Herald Times Reporter.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201111-pathfinder
A new report by a scientific committee of the International Joint Commission examines seven problems plaguing the Great Lakes to learn how they interact with one another. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201111-climate
How do you protect water quality, public health and the environment when much of society comes to a near full stop with no notice?
That was the dilemma for regulatory agencies in March when the realities of the COVID-19 virus caused businesses and schools to close, factories to cease or drastically modify operations, travel to be restricted and office workers to scramble to set up makeshift workspaces in their homes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/covid-19-compliance-agencies-environmental-protection/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/great-lakes-stressed-climate-change-worse/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F700D0A5C.WindAdvisory.125F700D6880WI.GRBNPWGRB.69ab570497aaae4734ac79089135691e
Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2020/11/11/wildfires-threaten-great-lakes-region-too/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F700C3578.WindAdvisory.125F700D6880WI.GRBNPWGRB.6e12989cb283856c76d2494b6b31eab4
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F6FFFEA98.WindAdvisory.125F700D6880WI.GRBNPWGRB.6e12989cb283856c76d2494b6b31eab4
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F6FFF73D8.SpecialWeatherStatement.125F6FFF9764WI.GRBSPSGRB.670272ffdeab82d92d5ab990673d0435
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Wildlife advocates and environmental groups have announced that they are challenging the removal of federal protections for gray wolves across most of the U.S.
Two coalitions of groups filed formal notices over the past several days that they plan to sue the U.S. Interior Department in federal court unless protections are restored.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/ap-groups-gray-wolf-protections/
Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2020/11/10/project-begins-testing-sewage-for-covid-19-across-michigan/
Mariners’ Church of Detroit will observe the 45th anniversary Sunday of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald during its yearly memorial service for those who have died in Great Lakes shipwrecks. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201110-fitzgerald-shipwreck
Lake Erie and Cleveland could soon be home to the first offshore wind facility in the Great Lakes, and the first freshwater wind farm in North America. Read the full story by Spectrumnews1.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201110-wind-lake-erie
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to reverse dozens of Donald Trump’s environmental policies while emphasizing a crackdown on polluters in Illinois and beyond. Read the full story by Chicago Sun-Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201110-environmental-policies
The Pyatt Lake Trail on Old Mission Peninsula in Michigan had been experiencing high water levels due to rising waters in the Great Lakes and frequent rainstorms, which blocks off parts of the trail. The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy is building boardwalks and improving the trailway and observation platforms, making it the peninsula’s first universally-accessible trail. Read the full story by 9&10News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201110-accessible-trails-michigan
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that the Center for EcoTechnology, RTI International and the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio have been awarded grants totaling $170,907 to support sustainable materials management projects in Ohio. Read the full story by Waste Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201110-recycling-waste-grants
A vast chunk of Mississauga’s prime lakeshore in Ontario will be converted from a former oil refinery. Highlights of the redevelopment named Brightwater will include nearly 3,000 new residences in a mix of condominiums and townhomes, as well as up to 150 affordable housing units. Read the full story by The Globe and Mail.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201110-oil-refinery-redevelopment
Historically sailors often found Lake Erie to be the most challenging of the Great Lakes, as its shallowness can cause violent waves. As Great Lakes shipping increased in the 19th century, during the time the Lake Erie Canal was built, three lighthouses were constructed in Monroe, Michigan guiding ships through the perilous waters. Read the full story by Monroe News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201110-lake-erie-lighthouses
Officials on Monday celebrated the completion of the Route 5 break wall repair project in Hamburg, New York. The break wall has, for years, deteriorated so much to the point that cars were splashed by the waters from Lake Erie during storms. The upgrades will prevent these hazards with the installation of 1,325 foot stones and a ten-foot “splash apron”. Listen to the full story by WBEN-FM, Buffalo NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201110-break-wall-erosion
The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. board of directors met Monday and adopted the Buffalo Outer Harbor’s general project plan (GPP). The Outer Harbor GPP outlines future improvements including recreational facilities to improve what is currently vacant, substandard or underutilized property along a nearly one-and-a-half mile stretch of Lake Erie waterfront. Read the full story by Niagara Frontier Publications.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201110-harbor-plan-improvements
A $40 million data center that will serve the Chicago area has opened in northwestern Indiana at a former coal-fired power plant site along Lake Michigan that was shuttered in 2012 and had long been one of the Chicago area’s worst polluters. The 105,000-square-foot Digital Crossroads data center was designed to serve soaring demand for data storage, such as for streaming movie and music services. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201110-coal-data-indiana
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F6FFED2E8.WindAdvisory.125F700D6880WI.GRBNPWGRB.6e12989cb283856c76d2494b6b31eab4
Green Bay, WI
https://www.weather.gov/noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=858309daa74f4e6ebf81f32d128f7ed8
Green Bay, WI
https://www.weather.gov/noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=858309daa74f4e6ebf81f32d128f7ed8
An estimated 9,887 metric tonnes (22 million pounds) of plastics make their way into the Great Lakes every year. Now a new project aims not only to suck out some of that plastic but stop it from getting into the lakes in the first place.
It began last summer with Toronto Harbour’s installation of three Seabins – devices that look like trash cans in the water but behave like vacuum cleaners, said Christopher Hilkene, CEO of Pollution Probe.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/seabins-trap-plastics-great-lakes-canada/
NCEI News Feed
http://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/humans-ncei-nic-arcos
NCEI News Feed
http://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news//news/humans-ncei-nic-arcos
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F6FFDC498.WindAdvisory.125F700D6880WI.GRBNPWGRB.6e12989cb283856c76d2494b6b31eab4
Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2020/11/10/as-temperatures-rise-great-lakes-region-faces-spike-in-lyme-disease/
The Edmund Fitzgerald. Image credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The 45th anniversary of the loss of the iron ore freighter the Edmund Fitzgerald is Nov. 10. The Gordon Lightfoot song about this tragedy is admittedly an earworm but it is also accurate with its facts. The 729-foot ship faced a fierce storm with 50-knot winds and towering waves when “the gales of November came slashing.”
Because the ship left on its last voyage from Superior, Wisconsin, it can sometimes be thought the vessel went down in the waters of the Badger State, or the U.S. at least. Wisconsin Historical Society Maritime Archaeologist Tamara Thomsen, a longtime Sea Grant partner, said the fate of the Edmund Fitzgerald and where it went down are common questions during the literally hundreds of shipwreck presentations she has delivered through the years
In fact, at a depth of 530 feet, the ship lies split in two near Whitefish Point, Michigan, but is in the Canadian waters of Lake Superior. The lake is the final resting place for 29 men.
The compelling tales of 760 other lakes Michigan and Superior shipwrecks can be found at wisconsinshipwrecks.org, a project of Sea Grant and the Wisconsin Historical Society. Information on the ships’ construction, service histories, final voyages and locations are searchable, as are any relevant videos and photos.
Image credit: Jeff Hormann, Creative Commons
Other shipwrecks that may be in the area are described. Nearby attractions such as historic waterfronts, lighthouses, museums, historic vessels, charter services, theaters, waterfront parks or archeological sites are also linked with each ship’s story. These attractions are searchable by location and category, as well.
The “learn” section of the site provides visitors with information about underwater archeology, the value of studying shipwrecks and how the studies are undertaken, field reports, a calendar of shipwreck-related events, a glossary of ship terms and a list of archival newspaper stories about the waters and their wrecks.
Finally, the site explains the location and details of maritime trail historical markers so landlubbers can explore maritime history in a socially distanced way.
As we commemorate this year’s date of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and just as in all other shipwrecks that led to loss of life, “All that remains is the faces and the names of the wives and the sons and the daughters.”
The post Shipwreck website holds stories of the Fitzgerald and other Great Lakes wrecks first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.
Blog – Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/shipwreck-website-holds-stories-of-the-fitzgerald-and-other-great-lakes-wrecks/
New York Senators are calling on the EPA to extend a written comment period for proposed vessel incidental discharge standards. Read the full story by WWTI-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201109-vessel-indidental-discharge
A businessman from central Illinois has combined two wildly divergent opportunities into what is now likely the only legal cannabis and Asian carp business partnership on the planet. Read the full story by the Pekin Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201109-asain-carp-business
Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy worked with the local government to purchase a piece of private property on Lake Michigan that will open up an area of natural freshwater and forested dunes off the Lake Michigan coast to the public. Read the full story by WWMT-TV – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201109-lake-michigan-coastline
Over $1 million is needed for the first steps of the planned restoration of the Flint River-Swartz Creek confluence in mid-Michigan. Read the full story by East Village Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201109-restoration-project
After decades of state oversight of polluter-funded cleanup efforts for the Gelman dioxane plume, the city of Ann Arbor in southeast Michigan is seeking federal intervention. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201109-epa-intervention
Even as fishing in Lake Erie, the “Walleye Capital of World”, has certainly been living up to its name over the past two years, experts are projecting it could be on the verge of getting even better. Read the full story by the Port Clinton News Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201109-walleye-fishing
Although the Great Lakes’ water levels generally drop this time of year, all of them are decreasing above average levels. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201109-water-levels
The Great Lakes Historical Shipwreck Society is planning a virtual live ceremony on November 10 to commemorate the singing of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Read the full story by Lake Superior News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201109-edmund-fitzgerald
The new Eagle Tower in Peninsula State Park located in northern Door County, Wisconsin should be completed by the end of 2020 and will open to the public in the spring of 2021. Listen to the full story by the Green Bay Press Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201109-eagle-tower
