Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/catch-of-the-day/page/91/)
A dugout canoe isn’t a normal method of travel on the Great Lakes. But that hasn’t stopped Mary Catterlin, 23, and Amy Lukas, 23, from paddling one around the perimeter of Lake Michigan this summer.
The two left Indiana July 1, heading northwest in Mekeba, an 11-foot dugout canoe that Catterlin built in her parent’s backyard.
Move over crabbers, Great Lakes tugboat captains have taken over primetime in Great Lake Warriors, a new series on the History Channel. For those of us who know the Great Lakes as a place for sun, sand and beach, Great Lakes Warriors shows us the lakes once summer’s over. It’s a whole different world out there. The show follows five captains braving winter storms on the Great Lakes to break up ice and tow barges into port. Their tugs battle wind gusts, choppy waters and weather that can change in an instant. The Great Lakes are a dangerous place to be a sailor. While their crashing waves may not seem as impressive as those barreling down on Alaskan crab boats in The Most Dangerous Catch, sobering underwater shots of perfectly preserved shipwrecks and one of a lone work boot sitting at the lake bottom show how perilous it can be out there.
Thanks to a trail camera photograph the Michigan Department of Natural Resources confirmed for the first time the presence of a cougar in Marquette County. It’s the 16th confirmation by the DNR of cougars in Michigan’s Upper Pennisula since 2008. At least two have been confirmed this year. Last year one cougar was spotted three different times in two different counties. The photo was released by the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, a citizen group that restores Michigan wildlife habitats.
NASA’s Earth Observatory has a remarkable view of the impact of the summer drought. Parts of the Great Lakes region are among those hardest hit. The image depicts plant health in the central U.S. with data collected by the space agency’s Terra satellite. Brown areas show where plants have taken a hit, cream indicates normal growth and green indicates lush vegetation. Gray indicates where data could not be collected because of snow or cloud cover. Things look particularly bad in southern Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.
You may know about the Asian carp, but would you know one if you saw one?
This video distinguishes bighead, silver and grass carp (aka Asian carp) from their not-so-notorious brethren, common carp.
Longtime environment writer Jeff Alexander just launched a nifty feature to track the Asian carp crisis. It’s modeled after the Doomsday Clock that scientists created in the 1940s to track how the world inched toward nuclear holocaust. The Asian Carp Doomsday Clock features hands made of images of bighead and silver carp – two of the species biologists and others fear could devastate the Great Lakes ecosystem. Jeff does a nice round up of a week’s worth of bad news along the carp Maginot Line to justify setting the hands at a mere five minutes before midnight. When the original Doomsday Clock was launched in 1947, it was set at seven minutes to midnight.
An animated map of Great Lakes currents can help lake-goers interpret the speed and direction of currents in any location. “We are trying to provide information so people can learn about circulation in the lakes and get a sense for how frequently it changes,” said David Schwab, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The administration recently released the map to provide information that is a little less technical, Schwab said. Users can either view the surface current map or the depth-averaged current map. Surface currents change frequently due to wind conditions, Schwab said.
The federal government’s carp czar is holding a public meeting in Chicago today to discuss efforts to prevent Asian carp from establishing in the Great Lakes. Here’s what Great Lakes Echo’s Gary Wilson had to say about the issue on WMUK in Kalamazoo, Mich. The White House Council on Environmental Quality Asian Carp Director John Goss is leading the meeting of the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee. Information at the bottom of this post explains how to participate at 2 p.m. Central time (3 p.m. Eastern) via webcast.
Turnover is frustrating at university-based news organizations. Just as a reporter hits her or his stride, they graduate and move on to another venue. Of course fostering the growth that allows that to happen is fulfilling for an educator. But I’d also argue that in the long-run, it’s also good for the longterm quality of Echo’s journalism. For with every reporter we train here at Echo, we expand our network of journalists who keep us abreast of creative newsgathering elsewhere, provide Great Lakes news tips and become potential freelancers for when we secure funding for that kind of thing.
The Ranger III, which ferries people between Houghton, Mich., and Isle Royale National Park, is the first freshwater ship on the Great Lakes with a permanent system for fighting the spread of invasive species.