Echo
Michigan effort focuses on storm drains as source of water contamination
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Chippewa County is one of many Great Lakes communities looking to clean up public waters by identifying and treating problem storm drains.
Wildlife
Lake Erie water snake slithers off the endangered species list
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A nonpoisonous Lake Erie water snake is no longer listed as a federally endangered species. The snake’s numbers plunged as more people settled Lake Erie’s western islands, according to the Toledo Blade. Populations rebounded after federal and state agencies protected inland and shoreline hibernation and breeding grounds. Earning federal protection in 1999, the water snake is the 23rd species to be delisted, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Echo
Echo catches up with a quick-witted Asian carp
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Asian carp may be bottom-feeders, but they have high-class humor – sort of. Echo got a hold of the invasive game-changer via Twitter last week.
VIDEO: How Many Sport Fish Can Lake Michigan Support?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrE4gXGgJI0
Who’s eating whom in Lake Michigan? The emergence of a few bad actors has made it difficult to answer that question. That’s why University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researchers are studying the impact of aquatic invasive species – specifically round gobies – on Lake Michigan food webs. Gobies are a ravenous and aggressive fish species that invaded Great Lakes in the early 1990s. They subsist on tiny bottom-dwelling organisms and feed on baby quagga mussels for a side dish, scientists say.
Echo
Their dead drive lamprey nuts
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A new method of battling the blood-sucking sea lamprey involves an unlikely odor: the smell of its putrefied flesh.
Great Lakes formed by volcanoes? American students score poorly on geography tests
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Giant volcanoes formed the Great Lakes in prehistoric times. Not quite, but that’s what seven percent of U.S. 12th-grade students guessed on geography tests last year. More than half of students got it right: The Great Lakes formed when large volumes of freshwater melted from ice sheets and settled into depressed land. A recent segment of Yahoo! Who Knew?
Nearshore
Lake Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes named nation’s favorite beauty
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If it’s a beauty pageant, then Lake Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes is certainly the crowd favorite. Good Morning America voters recently named it one of the most beautiful places in the country. And its 35 miles of sandy beaches and crystal waters earned it a top spot on a beach expert’s best Great Lakes beaches in July. Host Josh Elliott visited Lake Michigan’s best-kept secret and called the dunes “stunning monuments to the passage of time.” They formed when ice sheets melted and formed glacial lakes, pushing rock debris to the shoreline. Now covered in sand, the dunes have captured national attention for their beauty; they are even celebrity chef Mario Batali’s favorite vacation spot.
Echo
Abandoning access: Townships hand over legal rights to road-ends
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Managing access to beaches where roads meet the water isn’t always clear.
Echo
Asian carp push Great Lakes invasion through Minnesota
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Asian carp may be close to infiltrating the Great Lakes through Minnesota waterways.
Genetic material testing turned up 22 positive hits for silver carp 50 miles upstream of the St. Croix River, a tributary of the Mississippi River.
VIDEO: Great Lakes celebrate 332 years of European water exploration
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The first European mariners to explore the upper Great Lakes set sail 332 years ago last Sunday. Navigating the Niagara Falls proved too tricky for explorers before 1679, when Robert La Salle built a ship from scratch above the falls and cruised to Lake Michigan. A super cool segment of Yahoo! Who Knew? explores the history of European adventures on the world’s largest freshwater bodies of water.