Bruce Beach Canada

The Marquette State Fish Hatchery has stocked 90 inland and Great Lakes sites with yearling lake trout, brook trout, and splake this year to keep fish populations sustainable for both anglers and ecosystems. Read the full story by WLUC – TV – Marquette, MI.

Photographers have captured evidence of a persistent harmful algae bloom that’s plagued Muskegon Lake spilling into Lake Michigan. The bloom migration came two days after Muskegon County Health Department advised municipalities to post signage at access points around Muskegon Lake. Read the full story by MLive.

Whichever national park beach you visit, there is probably some amount of plastic mixed in with the sand between your toes. A new study found that Great Lakes beaches have some of the highest concentrations of microplastics. Read the full story by the National Parks Service.

The Great Lakes Museum in Kingston is one of 27 organizations in Eastern Ontario receiving federal funding to help support and diversify tourism attractions, with $3.7 million being distributed in total. Read the full story by YGK News.

Alberta’s government recently launched a public awareness campaign to combat the spread of invasive zebra mussels and quagga mussels to the province which is currently free of zebra and quagga mussels. However, populations are on the rise in other parts of Canada including the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Community Press.

Audubon Great Lakes and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources are starting the Marsh Bird Habitat Restoration Project in Allouez Bay, Wisconsin. The project aims to restore the area’s natural habitat by reducing invasive cattails. Read the full story by the Superior Telegram.

Michigan Senator Gary Peters made a stop in Traverse City, Michigan, to see the progress of the FishPass Project. The project will replace the Union Street Dam and reconnect the Boardman River to Grand Traverse Bay to allow native fish passage. Read the full story by WPBN-TV – Traverse City, MI.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s largest research vessel, the 180-foot Lake Guardian, was docked at Hart Plaza in Detroit, Michigan, on Thursday for free public tours. The vessel was launched in 2010 to accelerate efforts to protect and restore the world’s largest system of fresh surface water. Read the full story by Detroit Free Press.

No one wants unsightly pipelines snaking across the country, draining Lake Michigan to feed the citrus groves of the Central Valley in California. But that future is drawing closer by the day. Read the full story by The Salt Lake Tribune.

When the pandemic hit, a local entrepreneur and 10 of his childhood friends joined forces to turn a pastime from their youth into a lucrative business. Now they’re trying to get the Kincardine community playing Waddies, too.
“It’s starting to gain some traction in the area, but I just want to get more people exposed to the game,” said Kincardine resident Trevor Aitchison. “I would love to get a league night started here in Kincardine.”
In 2020, during the pandemic, Aitchison and his friends decided to utilize their various skillsets to produce and market Waddies, a tossing game they started playing as youngsters in Centre Wellington.
“We all grew up together. We went to high school together, played hockey together and we all played this game,” Aitchison said of his business partners Andy Speers, Todd Machin, Jeff McLean, Ben Smyth, Dave Turner, Amr Galal, Chris Schwint, Paul Hewer, Tim Hewer and Ben Ellis. It was Speers’ grandfather that introduced the group to the game of Waddies after playing it at the legion in Fergus.
The original game was played using rubber furniture cups and a homemade game board. The new design doesn’t stray far from its roots using specially created rubber “Waddies” on game boards manufactured at a Mennonite-owned workshop in Wallenstein, Ont.
“We said, if we could sell 50 sets, we would be thrilled with that and we sold 200 in the first day when we launched,” Aitchison said. “It’s kind of just grown from there, which is exciting for us.”
According to Aitchison, nearly 3,000 Waddies game sets have been sold so far.
In order to spread his love of Waddies locally, Aitchison has hosted two annual beach tournaments in Kincardine. This year’s event was held July 20 and drew 15 teams. Read More

The Great Lakes, a crucial ecosystem supporting 139 native fish species, face a significant ecological crisis, as the Great Lakes Fishery Commission notes an alarming decline in native fish populations over the past two centuries. Read the full story by the Manistee News Advocate.

When an oil spill leached into two Toronto creeks last summer, the cleanup did not go as planned. Despite the efforts to contain it, the spill reached Lake Ontario — a source of drinking water for nine million people. Read the full story by The Narwhal.