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Source: Lake Carriers Association

Shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes totaled 4.4 million net tons in August. While the total represents an increase of 12 per cent compared to a year ago, shipments in August of 2007 were sluggish, said the Lake Carriers’ Association.

“The five-year average is the better barometer,” said the Association, “and in that regard, this August was off the pace by nearly 100,000 tons.”

Although water levels have risen, the dredging crisis continued to limit the amount of stone vessels could deliver to customers. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Sandusky Register

… new research on the effects of global warming on Lake Erie, to be discussed in a paper being prepared for submission to the Journal of Great Lakes Research, suggests that Lake Erie’s water level could fall as much as 1.2 feet by 2050.

That has important implications on the area’s economy, because it would hurt Great Lakes shipping, Wuebbles said.

“One inch could cause a very huge impact,” he said.

Jim Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers Association in Cleveland, said he is not an expert on global warming, but his organization has calculated the effect of shallower water, whether it’s caused by global warming, lack of dredging or another reason.

When one of the 1,000-foot vessels with U.S. flags in the Lake Carriers Association lose one inch of water, it means the ship can carry 8,000 tons less cargo, Weakley said. That’s enough coal to provide three hours of electricity for Greater Detroit. That one-inch loss means the U.S.-flagged Great Lakes fleet — 63 ships total, including the 13 1,000-footers — would carry 400,000 fewer tons a year.

One “laker,” as the freighters are called, can carry as much cargo as 2,800 trucks, Weakley’s group says.

Full story on many levels of impact, lively comments at the Sandusky Register >>

Michael Sangiacomo | Source: The Plain Dealer

While no one questions the lifesaving value of the Coast Guard’s still-unfinished emergency communications system, some in Washington are asking hard questions about its ballooning cost.

The price tag for the project, called Rescue 21, now stands at $1 billion - four times the original estimate given nine years ago.

Rescue 21 is like a 9-1-1 system for boaters. Most important, it allows the Coast Guard to home in on radio distress calls and pinpoint the caller’s location within several feet. It uses a series of radio transmission towers to instantly triangulate the caller’s position.

… Rescue 21 was supposed to be completed by now, but to date only 80 of the planned 231 continental U.S. transmitting towers have been set up. The system is in use along most of the coast of Florida and much of the East Coast.

The scheduled date of completion keeps moving further away, first to 2011 and now 2017. Eventually, there will be 340 towers, with sites that include the Great Lakes, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico. The nine Lake Erie towers are expected to be completed by August 2010.

Much more to this story at The Plain Dealer >>

Chris Thompson | Source: The Windsor Star

Unmanned U.S. Customs drone planes could be flying the skies over the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair if a project on the western border due to begin in weeks is successful.

The confirmation came Friday from Michael Kostelnik, the assistant commissioner of the Office of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Air and Marine, during the dedication of a new customs air and marine base at Selfridge Air National Guard base north of Detroit.

“[A]t the end of the day, flying late at night, over the Great Lakes, a system like this would be of tremendous benefit working with small boat traffic, augmenting the U.S. Coast Guard,” said Kostelnik.

“It helps to add security, it adds tremendous humanitarian support, they can do a lot of things that the manned things just cannot do.”

The new customs unit began operations on June 23, patrolling 1,850 kilometres along the border between northern Michigan and Lake Erie.

Read about the timing, proposals and program at The Windsor Star >>

Source: EPA Press Release

Over 30 representatives of local, state and federal government agencies and community groups will test their readiness to respond to aquatic invaders in the Great Lakes in a three day exercise in Presque Isle Bay, Pa., starting July 29. Participants will exercise on the water on July 30. This is the first time that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office has brought together a variety of groups in such an exercise. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is hosting the pilot exercise which may be repeated elsewhere in the Great Lakes and other watersheds.

During the exercise, participants will trawl for fish and practice using fish electroshocking equipment to prepare for a real-life situation where these techniques could be used to confirm the presence of an invasive species. By working together in an exercise, agencies will learn ways they can combine assets and overcome jurisdictional barriers to respond quickly to the introduction of harmful aquatic species. Read the rest of this entry »

by Shelley Nelson | Source: Superior Daily Telegram

Gordy Gebhardt, 80, made the journey to see the Meteor one more time. He has fond memories of the ship and had once imagined himself walking into the crew’s galley for a cup of coffee. That became a reality Friday.

“I grew up on the water, love the water, and I have been a huge boat nerd all my life,” said David Frew, a professor emeritus with Gannon University in Erie.

His current venture is a book about Lake Erie’s historic black Friday storm, when four ships including the James B. Colgate, a sister ship to the SS Meteor, sunk on Oct. 20, 1916.

“One of the things people in Duluth have no concept of is just how rough the water on Lake Erie gets, said Roger Pellett, a member of the Meteor Advisory Committee, which is working to research the ship’s history. “We have vast periods of time where Lake Superior looks like it does today, where it’s like a mill pond. Then there six or eight times a year there are big rollers coming in.”

Lake Erie, which is not as deep as the other Great Lakes, is choppier, particularly on its western end, and is fraught with navigational hazards.

The night of Oct. 20, 1916, created one of those “perfect storm explosions,” Frew said. A storm was rising from the Ohio Valley and clashed with an Alberta Clipper coming from the north.

Capt. Walter Grashaw “went out when others didn’t go, and he was met by this horrific storm,” Frew said. “The captain reported 40- to 50-foot waves and 100 mph winds. It lasted a long time and the direction never shifted.”

The Colgate, a 302-foot steel whaleback, was steaming west from Buffalo with a load of coal when it went down off Long Point, Ontario. Of the 26 men on board, Grashaw was the lone survivor. After 36 hours clinging to rope edges on a raft, he was nearly described as half-dead when he was recovered, according to the New York Times archives.

The black Friday storms also claimed the D.L. Filer, a wooden bulk freight schooner-barge, Marshall Butters, a wooden lumber hooker, and the Merida, a steel freighter with wooden deckhouses, claiming the lives of 58 sailors.

“The Colgate is a famous Lake Erie shipwreck, but it’s a whaleback built here in Superior,” Frew said.

Read the full story about this visit, past & current books at the Superior Daily Telegram >>

by Jay Miller | Source: Crain’s Cleveland Business

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is preparing to adopt a policy that will reduce the scope of its development financing efforts as it focuses on rebuilding the Port of Cleveland as a shipping and logistics center.

The new strategy is a result of the Port Authority’s plan to move its docks east of the Cuyahoga River to new docks it would like to build on Lake Erie at East 55th Street.

…If approved by the full board at its July 22 meeting, the primary focus of Port Authority financing will be for companies in maritime, logistics or distribution businesses, or for manufacturers that will move to a proposed international trade district adjacent to the future port.

Full story, details at Crain’s Cleveland Business >>

Source: Chicago Tribune

Researchers want to know if the bottom of Lake Erie is littered with cannonballs and other ammunition from a pivotal naval battle that was part of the War of 1812.

With the help of an $18,000 federal grant, the Great Lakes Historical Society will survey the lake floor this summer using sonar and magnetic wave technology.

The U.S. victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Erie, fought in September 1813, helped the Americans secure control of the lake and made a hero of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.

The lake’s bottom may have powder kegs and other debris from ships on both sides…

Read more on the technology, goals for this neat project >>

Source: Plain Dealer

Vermilion- Ohio marine archaeologists believe they have finally found the right combination for the record books - a Lake Erie shipwreck worthy of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a diver able to commit the time to make it happen.

The 1850 wreck of the Anthony Wayne, a side-wheel steamer, was discovered off Vermilion last summer by diver Tom Kowalczk.

…If the application is accepted, the Anthony Wayne will be the first Lake Erie shipwreck listed on the National Register.

“It’s so unique. You don’t see many side-wheel steamers. This is fresh, this is new,” said Texas A&M grad student Brad Krueger, who is spending five weeks at the Peachman Center, part of the Great Lakes Historical Society.

Read about the painstaking work these grad students are undertaking to measure and diagram the entire wreck at the Plain Dealer >>

Source: WKYC

It was supposed to be an easy run. The big ship took a right turn and headed down the Lake Erie coast bound for Cleveland. They never did make it.

…Now, for the first time, we are getting a look at video showing the wreckage 50-feet below the surface of the water.

In the murky water, you can make out parts of the ship and even what looks like the original paddlewheel.

Photo gallery and video at WKYC >>

ALAN INGRAM | Source: Morning Journal

The president and owner of St. George’s Renewable Energies LLC has a vision to not only put wind turbines throughout the region and in Lake Erie, but also to create 12,000 to 13,000 new first-tier jobs by drawing one of the top three wind turbine manufacturers to Lorain County and specifically Lorain.

Sekulic has asked Lorain Councilman Dennis Flores, D-2, to sponsor legislation that would give his company the ability to put 13 wind turbines off the Lorain shoreline when the time comes. The turbines would all be more than 1,000 yards off shore and would start at the western end of the city and move east, Sekulic said.

“That’s an excellent location,” he said, adding that area along the lake is mostly commercial.

Besides the potential need for many wind turbines, the area can also offer the manufacturers a supplier base, fresh water, shipping ability and a skilled workforce.

Read the rest of the proposed plans, project at the Morning Journal >>

by Erica Blake | Source: The Toledo Blade

Loaded with passengers and a cargo of liquor and wine, the Anthony Wayne had not traveled far on its voyage from the docks of Toledo to a port in Buffalo, when an inexplicable explosion occurred - one that sent it to the depths of Lake Erie.

Now, more than 150 years later and two years after it was first discovered deep beneath the Lake Erie waves, underwater archaeologists are studying the sidewheel steamboat in its final resting place.

Believed to be the oldest steamboat shipwreck in the lake, the Anthony Wayne is broken up and buried in the lake’s muck.

…archaeologists are working to preserve Great Lakes history by measuring and recording every detail of the vessel to re-create how it was built.

“This is part of the heritage of the lakes,” said Texas A&M University graduate student Brad Krueger, who initiated the project. “You can learn a lot from these wrecks. They shouldn’t be salvaged. … By showing the actual value of underwater archaeology, it gives us a better understanding of our Great Lakes history.”

With hopes of “bridging the gap in maritime history,” Mr. Krueger said his project will result in the re-creation of “architectural elements that we just don’t have.”

Full story with underwater photos, images at the Toledo Blade >>

Source: Farm and Dairy

PUT-IN-BAY, Ohio — The Stone Laboratory will host guest lectures through the summer at Gibraltar Island.

All lectures begin at 7:45 p.m. and conclude at 9 p.m.

Each lecture is preceded by a short lecture on current research at 7 p.m.

Members of the public are welcome and can take the Put-in-Bay Water Taxi from the Boardwalk Restaurant Dock at 7:15 p.m. before each lecture.

A short tour of Gibraltar Island will be provided before the lectures.

Lecture dates:

• June 12: Global warming: science or religion, Chris Korleski, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
• June 19: A brief history of Stone Laboratory and update on the current status of Lake Erie, Jeff Reutter, Ohio State University
• June 26: Geology of the Great Lakes: three billion years of spectacular scenery in the making, Charles E. Herdendorf, OSU
• July 3: Hypoxia alters species distributions and interactions: implications for food webs and fisheries, Stu Ludsin, OSU
• July 10: Fisheries Management and Research in Ohio, Ray Petering, Ohio Division of Wildlife
• July 24: Threats, impacts, adaptation, and opportunities for the Great Lakes related to climate change, Brent Sohngen, OSU
• July 31: The university system of Ohio, Eric Fingerhut, Ohio Board of Regents
• Aug. 7: Ships are cool!, James H. I. Weakley, Lake Carriers’ Association
• Sept. 6: Stone Laboratory open house, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Contact the Stone Laboratory office for information at 614-285-1800.

By Justin R. Kalmes | Source: Toledo Free Press

A specific project in Canada currently in the works could serve as the catalyst for transforming the region into one of the country’s intermodal centers, he said.

The Melford International Terminal Inc. project in Nova Scotia could allow the transfer of cargo containers from mega-container ships to trains, which would then travel Canadian National Railway lines to destinations in Canada and the United States.

The facility, according to a company document, will serve as a transfer point for containers coming from Asia and the Indian sub-continent that are shipped to North America via the Suez Canal. Melford is a privately funded endeavor.

Canadian National already has a terminal in Toledo at a facility known as Lang Yard, but the site is landlocked by Interstate 75 and the Hoffman Road landfill, Hartung said. Despite having an intermodal facility in Detroit, he said, Canadian National could look to Toledo because of the congestion around the Detroit metropolitan area.

Canadian National could use the city as a west terminal to trans-ship goods to ports throughout the Great Lakes, a process known as short-sea shipping, because of the amount of cargo Toledo’s sea port can handle, Hartung said.

But for Canadian National to develop an intermodal facility in Northwest Ohio to meet its needs, Hartung said, the infrastructure needs to exist to maximize the company’s ability to move containers inland throughout the United States. He said Melford Terminal is expected to open in 2011 with the first phase in the development at full capacity by 2015.

Creating the needed infrastructure to entice Canadian National to develop an intermodal terminal in Toledo needs to come through a partnership between government and the private sector, Hartung said.

“We want to have the improvements in place when that first ship comes in,” he said. “We need sites where we can move in and start to develop.”

Such sites do not exist in the area, Martinko said. Having them could be the difference when companies looking to develop an intermodal facility select a site, he said.

“We’re not the only place in the world that has strategic geography,” Martinko said.

Read the full story about this and other intermodal opportunities, at the Toledo Free Press >>

By TOM PETERS | Source: The Chronicle Herald

The Port of Halifax, as a centre for short sea shipping, may play a future role in the development of Cleveland, Ohio, as a cargo gateway to the U.S. Midwest.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson recently signed an agreement with the Costa Rica government to be a distribution centre for a variety of Costa Rican products and Halifax could eventually be part of the supply chain.

The agreement will see products, mainly agricultural goods, heading toward Cleveland later this year. The cargo will come into the U.S. via a southern port, most likely Miami, and then be either railed or trucked to Ohio.

But as cargo volumes grow, that could all very well change, says Adam Wasserman, president and CEO of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority.

“In the future we would hope volumes would build and the opportunity would be there to take most of the product via water all the way in (to Cleveland), and ports like Halifax, we hope, would play a significant role,” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

… Another piece of the logistics chain is a short sea service, which might happen within the next few months. Great Lakes Feeder Lines of Burlington, Ont., has taken ownership of a small container vessel it plans to use to start a short sea service.

Read the full story at The Chronicle Herald >>

by Jeff Alexander | Source: The Muskegon Chronicle

West Michigan residents concerned about sinking Great Lakes water levels will get a chance to share their views this week when U.S. and Canadian officials studying the issue visit Muskegon.

The International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canadian panel that advises the two nations on Great Lakes issues, is studying water levels in lakes Michigan, Huron, Superior and Erie. A committee working on the IJC’s International Upper Great Lakes Study will host a public hearing on lake levels Sunday, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Grand Valley State University’s Annis Water Resources Institute, 740 W. Shoreline.

“We want to hear lots of people come out and squawk at this public meeting,” said John Nevin, an IJC spokesman. “We want to hear what this issue means to people when the water is really high or really low.”

IJC officials might get an earful.

… Roger Gauthier, a hydrologist with the Great Lakes Commission, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could fix the excessive loss of water down the St. Clair River within a year by installing flow control structures near Port Huron.

“They could control erosion in the St. Clair River with underwater speed bumps — inflatable bladders that could hold back water (in Lake Huron) when water levels are low,” Gauthier said.

When the Corps of Engineers deepened the St. Clair River channel in 1962, the agency drafted blueprints for a concrete weir on the river bottom to control water levels in lakes Huron and Michigan. But the weir was never built because lake levels were generally above average from 1964 through about 1997; water levels have dropped like a stone since 1997.

See: Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3

Much more to this excellent story at the Muskegon Chronicle >>

By Irene Liguori | Buffalo News

…the church, which turns 190 this year, took shape using the bones of a famous Lake Erie shipwreck.

A massive hand-hewn cross in one of the church’s illuminated entryways is also a fragment of the first steamboat to ever ply the Great Lakes.

Fatter than railroad ties, the strong wooden beams supporting the church at 5461 Broadway and its steeple were taken from the splintered remains of the historic 338-ton side-wheeled steamboat Walk-in-the-Water, according to church historian Jim Allein.

…A terrifying storm on Lake Erie in early November 1821 drove Walk-in-the-Water onto a beach near the Buffalo Lighthouse, according to an account in the Cleveland Weekly Herald. All 75 passengers and Capt. J. Rogers’ crew survived.

Some time later, one of Lancaster Presbyterian’s 13 original members — a War of 1812 veteran named James Clark who survived the Walk-in-the-Water shipwreck — decided to salvage the boat’s timbers to help build the church.

Full story, photo at the Buffalo News >>

by Jacob Lammers | Source: Sandusky Register

Unseasonably cold weather delayed at least one major commercial ferry [on Lake Erie] this spring.

Miller Boat Line was supposed to start running March 21, but thick ice around Put-in-Bay has delayed its first run of the spring by a week.

The late start is especially unusual considering the ferryboats were running into January — and two years ago, the ferry boats operated year-round. Miller Boat Line serves Put-in-Bay and Middle Bass Island.

Miller Boat Line’s four ferry boats were locked in about 8-10 inches of ice in the island’s bay last week, but could float free if temperatures warm.

Kelleys Island Ferry Boat Line in Marblehead began operating Wednesday.

Full story, photo at Sandusky Register >>