Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/echo/page/102/)
Calling all shipwreck enthusiasts! Always wanted to explore an underwater shipwreck but not a fan of getting wet? This Saturday is your lucky day. Anyone with an Internet connection will have access to an underwater shipwreck tour at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Mich. Saturday.
When I reported on a record-breaking catfish catch Tuesday. I couldn’t help noticing that it is one ugly fish. Is it the most repulsive looking fish in the Great Lakes region? It’s not like there aren’t other contenders. The muskie has a face only a mother could love.
Unseasonably warm weather this spring sparked the spread of oak wilt disease in Michigan earlier than expected.
Michigan officials reported that the disease has been found in more than 40 counties already.
With every gas-powered car and every traditional wastewater treatment plant, a little nitrogen pollution gets released into the atmosphere. Scientists say it settles into the soil and may even lead to toxic algae blooms that kill fish.
As monstrous as it may seem, Michigan’s recent record-breaking 49.8 pound flathead catfish catch doesn’t measure up to record-breaking flatheads from other Great Lakes states. The largest is Indiana’s 79.8 pounder. Michigan’s record breaker was caught May 22, by Rodney Akey, on the St. Joseph River, in Berrien County. Pennsylvania is the only Great Lakes state with a smaller flathead catfish (48.6 pounds) on record.
This infographic produced by the United States Geological Survey makes it easy to visualize why water is not to be squandered. It displays just how much of the Earth’s water is available for use. It’s not as much as you’d think when you look at it in relationship to the size of the Earth. The largest of three spheres represents all the water on Earth, salt and fresh. The second largest represents just freshwater.
This week Echo reporters ask people the age of the Great Lakes.
Ontario lawmakers are introducing an act to restore and protect the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Protection Act would establish a Great Lakes Guardian Council with members from provincial and local government, the First Nations and the sectors of science and agriculture. A Great Lakes Community Action Fund would provide $1.5 million for community projects designed to help the Great Lakes. It would also allow the provincial minister of the environment to implement problem-solving targets, requirements and initiatives. The action comes at a time when critics say a proposed federal budget bill in the Canadian Parliament guts environmental protections.
Growing populations, droughts, climate change and water scarcity all threaten global water needs.
But we have plenty of water, according to Charles Fishman, author of The Big Thirst. We just need to rethink our relationship to it.
China is second to the U.S. in terms of contributing mercury into the Great Lakes basin, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.