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Source: Sault Star
Engineers are monitoring the Poe Lock after a gate malfunction closed the largest of the Soo Locks on Wednesday.
“It wasn’t mitring properly so we stopped traffic for a while [Wednesday morning],” said Klein.
“We’re still monitoring it,” he said.
CATHY DOBSON | Source: Sarnia Observer
[The] underwater videography is now complete and its suggests the riverbed near the bridge hasn’t changed, says John Nevin, communications advisor for the International Upper Great Lakes Study.
That flies in the face of assertions made by Georgian Bay homeowners, who claimed in 2005 that ongoing erosion in the riverbed is causing low lake levels. According to the bathtub theory the riverbed is eroding as a result of past dredging, making the channel deeper. With a larger drain-hole at Sarnia, lakes Michigan and Huron are falling.
… Instead, the study has found that the St. Clair’s riverbed south of the Black River appears to have “significantly” changed in size.
“It might be a result of maintenance dredging or perhaps it’s prop wash from propellers. It’s really too early to say,” said Nevin.
by Jennifer Sattler | Source: The Voice News
“Freighter Frank” Fisk will share his insights on life aboard a freighter when he kicks off the Friends’ First Thursday series at 7 p.m. Thursday at the St. Clair Library.
… Fisk … is a plethora of knowledge when it comes to the vessels that ply the St. Clair River and Lake Huron.
He will present a PowerPoint presentation about the year he spent working and living aboard the freighter, the Paul R. Tregurtha.
At 1,013 feet, six inches long, the Tregurtha is the largest ship plying the Great Lakes and is known as the “Queen of the Great Lakes.” It is owned and managed by the Interlake Steamship Co. Fisk spent a year on the freighter as a cook, and his presentation is full of interior ship shots.
“I spent a year traveling around the Great Lakes, with all of the security measures nowadays, being on a ship is exclusive,” he said. “I will also present menus of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and other holiday fare.”
The St. Clair Library is located at 310 S. Second St. in St. Clair.
The program is free and all are welcome.
Source: Duluth News Tribune
The level of Lake Superior declined by 2 inches during an unusually dry month of August, the International Lake Superior Board of Control reported Tuesday.
The lake dropped 2 inches during a month in which, on average, it goes up by a half-inch.
… The level of Lakes Michigan-Huron now sits 14 inches below normal but 7 inches above their level at this time last year.
By SCOTT DUNN | Source: Owen Sound Sun Times
Changes to the St. Clair River bed are responsible for a 13-centimetre drop in lakes Huron and Michigan and in Georgian Bay, according to preliminary finding of an extensive binational scientific examination.
The preliminary results were discussed Tuesday night at a public meeting attended by some 75 people at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre and hosted by the International Upper Great Lakes Study group’s public interest advisory committee.
… this summer’s unusually wet weather has resulted in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan levels 22 centimetres higher than a year ago, the meeting was told. Huron, however, is still 36 centimetres below its 1918- 2007 average for early July.
Ted Yuzykj, the Canadian co-chair of the study group, suggested at the meeting it doesn’t appear the dredging of the northerly mouth of the St. Clair River is the main concern as some suspected.
“There is something going on there,” he said. “Almost 90 per cent” of the area responsible for increased flow is at the south end of the river, he said.
More quotes, details in the full story at the Owen Sound Sun Times >>
Source: The London Free Press
POINT EDWARD — Much of Point Edward’s waterfront was evacuated and Great Lakes ship traffic temporarily halted yesterday after someone threatened to blow up the Blue Water Bridge.
Both lanes of the international span were closed for 90 minutes after the threat was delivered to the Canadian Coast Guard office.
… “It’s a sad commentary on the times,” he said. “But we have to take every precaution.”
Because the bridge was targeted, the Coast Guard halted all water traffic approaching it from Lake Huron and the St. Clair River, including commercial shipping and pleasure boats, spokesperson J. J. Brickett said.
Sharon Hill | Source: The Windsor Star
Lakes St. Clair, Huron and Superior are at their highest levels in the last four years.
“They’re all up,” Ralph Moulton, manager of the water level information office at Environment Canada, said Tuesday.
Lake Superior, which affects the levels of the other Great Lakes and had dropped to record lows a year ago, is 41 cm higher than it was last year at this time, Moulton said.
Lake Huron is 23 cm higher and Lake Ontario is 31 cm higher than a year ago.
… David Cree, president of the Windsor Port Authority, said he’s hoping lake levels will keep rising.
“The higher water levels this year are good news for everybody in the industry,” Cree said. “If the trend of the last four to five years had continued … it would have been a real issue this year and next year. We’re hoping now that’s bottomed out and we’re on an upward trend in lake levels.”
The same amount of cargo goes through the Windsor port but during times of low lake levels it takes more ships to move goods on the lakes because the ships have to carry less.
Read the full story, with more stats & quotes at the Windsor Star >>
by Tina Lam | Source: Detroit Free Press
Heavy snow and rains since last winter have made the lakes rise. Scientists aren’t sure whether this will last, but they’re hopeful. The temperatures, moisture and ice cover next winter will be critical.
“If we get two more good, normal winters with normal precipitation, then we’d have a turnaround,” said Cynthia Sellinger, deputy director of the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Lake Superior, which beat its 1926 record low last fall, rebounded to within 4 inches of its long-term average in July. Lakes Erie and Ontario are 2 and 4 inches, respectively, above their July averages.
Lakes Michigan and Huron are up 8 inches, though still lagging more than a foot below their normal July levels. Lake St. Clair is up 10 inches from last year and down just 2 inches from its normal for July.
… Ships on the Great Lakes that carry coal, iron ore and cement for industry moved slightly more cargo in June than they did a year ago, but they’re still loading light because some harbors still are too shallow, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association in Cleveland.
Despite 16 inches more water in Lake Superior last week compared with a year ago, the Wenonah ferry from Grand Portage, Minn., to Isle Royale National Park still is not running. Last summer was the first in 30 years the 149-passenger boat couldn’t get to the island.
Read why the lakes rebounded, further impacts and mid-term forecasts all at the Detroit Free Press >>
by Bill Bradley | Source: NorthernLife.ca
Climate change and water levels in Lake Huron are being discussed at a number of public meetings around Georgian Bay, starting next Saturday in Little Current.
The meetings are being held by the International Upper Great Lakes Study (IUGLS) in communities all around the Georgian Bay region of Lake Huron from August 9 to 12.
Closest to Greater Sudbury is the meeting being held at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall on Vankoughnet Street East in Little Current on Saturday, August 9 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
On the same day will be a meeting at the Stockey Centre, 2 Bay Street in Parry Sound from 3 to 5 p.m.
by Tom Skilling | Source: Chicago Tribune
Lake Michigan’s water level has risen 8 inches above the same period a year ago. Once just 6 to 12 inches above all-time lows, lake levels are up in response to the same downpours that caused many area rivers to flood. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which monitors the Great Lakes, predicts the higher levels are to hold through the coming months, though, barring new waves of heavy rains, the biggest rises have probably already occurred. Interconnected Lakes Michigan and Huron are unlikely to change significantly in the next month.
The corps reports other Great Lakes have experienced increased levels as well, with Lake Superior 16 inches higher than a year ago.
Source: USCG
DETROIT - Coast Guard Sector Detroit coordinated search and rescue and a medical evacuation of a 35-year-old crewman who fell overboard from the sailing vessel Night Train during the Bayview Mackinaw Race 31 nautical miles east of Harrisville, Mich. in the early hours today.
At approximately 1:44 a.m., a Coast Guard rescue helicopter arrived on scene, however, the damaged mast/rigging did not permit a safe transfer from the small boat.
Within fifteen minutes, the 140-foot Biscayne Bay arrived on scene to assist.
The cutter sent an EMT in a small boat to assess the victim’s condition.
After discussions with crew and medical flight surgeon, it was determined that it was in the victim’s best interest to get him to a medical facility for further evaluation.
The seas had grown to three to five feet and winds were 20 knots as the cutter small boat recovered the victim and brought him to the cutter.
Once safely on board, the victim was hoisted to the helicopter.
The helicopter then safely transported the victim to Alpena Regional Hospital.
The Night Train, a 35-foot sailboat with 11 racers, was participating in the Bayview Mackinaw Race.
The boat was nearly halfway into the race in the middle of Lake Huron, when the sail boat had trouble with their sailing rigging.
A crew member climbed the sail boat’s mast to fix the jammed rigging when, for unknown reasons, he fell approximately 40 feet into the water.
It is not clear how or why the man fell.
Seas were estimated to be three to four feet and winds 15 to 20 knots.
Fortunately, the man fell clear of the boat and was wearing a life jacket.
A crew member from the sail boat called out for help on their VHF-FM radio.
Sarnia Coast Guard received the initial distress call.
Sarnia Traffic forwarded the call to U.S. Coast Guard Sector Detroit’s Command Center which launched rescue efforts and communicated the urgency via VHF-FM radio messages.
As the sail boat attempted to recover the 35-year-old man, the loose rigging fouled the engine and delayed the recovery.
Several nearby sailing vessels (sailing vessels Liberty, Time Machine, and Canadian Olympia) rushed to the Night Train’s aid as the Coast Guard launched a rescue helicopter from Air Station Detroit.
The Biscayne Bay, which was escorting the fleet, also diverted to assist.
The crew of the Night Train was able to successfully recover the man after about 25 minutes.
He was entangled in the rigging, had leg and lower back pain, but was safe on board.
At 1 a.m., the crew successfully started one of their engines and headed to Harrisville, Michigan to repair their boat and get medical attention.
This is the 84th Bayview Yacht Club Port Huron to Mackinac Race.
The race started the afternoon of July 12 from the city of Port Huron.
The competing sail boats race the new 214 nautical mile course that rounds the NOAA weather buoy 43 miles northeast of Alpena, Mich. and continuing to the finish at Mackinac Island.
The Biscayne Bay is home ported in St. Ignace, Michigan and had the honor of escorting the fleet for this year’s race. Read the rest of this entry »
by Dan Egan | Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
The salmon fishery has collapsed on Lake Huron, and it happened in just a few years. In 2003, Michigan’s 10 busiest ports on Lake Huron saw about 1.2 million recreational fishing hours, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Last year, that number dropped to approximately 300,000 - a decline of 75%.
And the effects of that collapse have crashed onto the streets of Deaton’s Harbor Beach, a town of about 1,800 along Michigan’s Lake Huron coast.
“As you’re driving through town, just look side to side,” says tackle shop owner Art Farden. “We’ve lost three grocery stores in the last five years.”
…it’s no stretch to say the salmon collapse has been catastrophic to the local economy.
The problem is the little fish that sustained the big salmon have disappeared.
…The worry now is the troubles will spill into the much more heavily populated - and heavily fished - Lake Michigan.
It might already be happening. The numbers of forage fish that sustain the salmon on Lake Michigan are dropping like the cannonball-sized sinkers that charter boat captains use. The estimated volume of forage fish in 2007 was at a record low of about 31,000 tons, a 93% decline from the late 1980s.
“I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’m really concerned,” says Dan Thomas, president of the Great Lakes Sport Fishing Council.
… Six summers ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers explored the idea of expanding the St. Lawrence Seaway to accommodate bigger oceangoing vessels to attract more business to the underused nautical highway.
The agency scoffed at worries that opening the Great Lakes to more overseas freighters would lead to more ecological chaos.
“The most dramatic impacts to the ecosystem have likely already occurred,” the Corps stated in a nearly 500 page report released in June 2002.
Those words proved ludicrously wrong.
Just five months after the report was published, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee discovered a fistful of suspicious mussels during a fish survey on the lake’s open waters, about 20 miles northeast of downtown Milwaukee.
The cluster of fingernail-sized shells turned out to be the scientists’ first encounter with the previously obscure quagga mussel, yet another invader that made its way into the Great Lakes as a stowaway aboard an ocean freighter.
In just six years, those filter feeders have gone from a curiosity to a cancer, smothering the lake bottom in a manner the zebra mussel never came close to doing and forever changing the way energy flows through Lake Michigan.
Asked how the lake could recover to something resembling its natural state, UWM senior scientist and quagga mussel expert Russell Cuhel responds:
“It can’t. It’s a new lake.”
Charts, photos, much more to this critical story at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel >>
by Jeff Alexander | Source: Muskegon Chronicle
A fatal virus that recently killed thousands of fish near Milwaukee has [Michigan] state officials fearing it’s just a matter of time before the disease surfaces on this side of Lake Michigan.
Michigan officials who have been checking dead fish for signs of VHS said it has not shown up in Michigan’s portion of Lake Michigan. Yet.
“Was the Wisconsin die-off surprising to us? Not at all,” said Jim Dexter, Lake Michigan basin coordinator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. “We knew VHS was present in Green Bay last year and we know it’s now available to be transferred to other species.”
Other than the Great Lakes, the only other Michigan water body where VHS has been confirmed was Budd Lake, near Harrison.
The USCG reports they medevaced an ill 53-year-old woman from the Peter R Cresswell on Thursday. The Cresswell was located approximately 22 miles off Oscoda, Michigan in northwestern Lake Huron, headed for the St. Mary’s River.
USCG Air Station Detroit dispatched an HH-65 Dolphin Helicopter and airlifted the woman from the deck of the ship. She was transported to the Alpena Hospital in Alpena, Michigan, where she is listed in stable condition.
The Coast Guard has posted video of the medevac on their Gallery here.
The Peter R Cresswell is a 730 ft long bulker owned by Algoma Central Corp., of St. Catharines, Ont. It was built in 1982.
Source: USCG
HARBOR BEACH, Mich. - The Coast Guard medicaly evacuated a crewmember off a freighter in Lake Huron, today.
The freighter, Canadian Transfer, called the Coast Guard to help get a sick crewmember off the ship and to a hospital on land.
U.S. Coast Guard Station Harbor Beach was deployed and arrived along side the Canadian Transfer at appromately 2 p.m. in their 27 foot Utility Boat Medium.
The 48-year-old crewmember was experiencing stomach pains since early this morning.
He was brought back to Station Harbor Beach to awaiting Emergeny Medical Services at approximately 2:10 p.m. who took him to Harbor Beach Community Hospital.
Source: International Lake Superior Board of Control
The International Lake Superior Board of Control invites you to participate in a public meeting/teleconference on Thursday evening, June 12, 2008.
The purpose of the meeting is to provide information on the operations of the board, current and forecasted water levels, and to receive public input about local concerns related to water levels and flows of Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron.
You may participate by calling toll-free 1-866-551-3680 between 6:45 and 6:55 p.m. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
Much more to this excellent story at the Muskegon Chronicle >>
By NICHOLAS DESHAIS | Source: Times Herald (Port Huron, MI)
Wind from the south emptied the St. Clair River of any ice yesterday, but don’t expect the water to remain clear and blue.
“This Lake Huron ice, it’s going to be with us until the end of the first week in April,” said Ron Morrow, an ice specialist with the Canadian Ice Service. “I’d say we have another week or ten days.”
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