There is no verifiable account of sharks ever reaching the Great Lakes, and multiple hoaxes have been exposed and urban legends debunked over the years. A Great Lakes shark is virtually impossible—but not quite. Read the full story by The Detroit Free Press.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is seeking people to give advice about a proposed national marine sanctuary in Lake Erie adjacent to Erie, Pennsylvania. Adding a sanctuary would enable NOAA to protect the region’s maritime heritage resources, including a nationally significant collection of shipwrecks, according to the agency. Read the full story by Erie Times-News.
The Wisconsin Department of Administration’s Wisconsin Coastal Management Program is donating nearly $1.3 million in grants to 31 communities to support quality of life, foster economic development, and protect and improve Great Lakes resources. Read the full story by WLUK-TV – Green Bay, WI.
As a result of warming waters, increasingly variable seasonal changes and lakeshore development, walleye numbers in some lakes are dwindling. Losing the species would mean losing a food source for Great Lakes community members, a sovereign right to fish, and a deep connection to tradition and nature. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
New York Sea Grant and the Center for Great Lakes Literacy have announced 20 teachers and educators representing 17 school districts and organizations will participate in the first of five professional development workshops focused on New York’s unique Great Lakes’ ecosystem, species and climate. Read the full story by Niagara Frontier Publications.
A Great Lakes freighter called the Michipicoten is now in Fraser Shipyards after cracking and taking on water near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Read the full story by the Star Tribune.
The Great Lakes 360 living museum is now open in Niagara Falls, New York. It is located inside the former Gorge Discovery Center at Niagara Falls State Park. There are 16 interactive exhibits featuring turtles, amphibians, insects and many species of fish, representing the diverse ecosystems of the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Spectrum News 1 Buffalo.
According to legend, the whitefish were once “so bountiful in the St Mary’s River Rapids that you could walk on their backs.” Now, the fish are struggling to survive. But this month, over a million more walleye and whitefish swim through northern Michigan waters thanks to a release by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
First-of-its-kind documentary All Too Clear: Beneath the Surface of the Great Lakes will mark its world premiere at the Stockey Centre in Parry Sound, Ontario. The immersive film uses cutting-edge underwater drones to explore how quadrillions of tiny invasive mussels, known as quaggas, are re-engineering the ecosystem of the Great Lakes at a scale not seen since the glaciers. Read the full story by Muskoka411.
The Great Lakes region’s potential future as a water technology leader has gotten a big boost this year with new funding and projects leading to new investment opportunities, businesses, technologies, and thousands of good-paying jobs in the process. Read the full story by the Brookings Institution.
After many years of planning, a state-of-the-art scientific facility has broken ground in Traverse City, Michigan. FishPass is an experimental fish passage system that will replace the aging Union Street Dam with a barrier that has the ability to sort and selectively pass native fish while blocking harmful, invasive species like sea lamprey. Read the full story by Northern Express.
Environmental and administrative lawyers say that efforts to protect Wisconsin’s water from contaminants such as PFAS could be harmed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week to overturn the 40-year-old precedent known as Chevron deference. Read the full story by the Wisconsin Examiner.