Great Lakes Region

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant
Shedd Aquarium's Great Lakes Invasion reaches millions with message of invasive species

• Sea Grant was a key resource for the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago in the development of the aquarium's exhibit, Great Lakes Invasions.
• The program provided information, images and contacts in the scientific community.
• The invasive aquatic species exhibit logs over one million visitors each year.

Michigan Sea Grant
Indicators reflect health of Detroit River, western Lake Erie

• A varied list of environmental features—from the abundance of burrowing mayflies to transportation issues in Southeast Michigan—are among a new list of ecosystem indicators that reflect the health of the Detroit River and western Lake Erie.  
• Detailed information on 46 ecosystem indicators was compiled as part of the Detroit River-Western Lake Erie Basin Indicator Project.
• The project was led by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service with assistance from Michigan Sea Grant and many other partners.
  

Minnesota Sea Grant
Minnesota Sea Grant scientists find that Lake Superior's combination of cold water and bacteria allow it to retain toxins

• Sea Grant researchers reviewed the processes driving pollutants in and through Lake Superior.
• The resulting article, “Synthetic Organic Toxicants in Lake Superior,” published in the peer-reviewed journal Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management, summarizes 25 years’ worth of investigations.
• The researchers report that Lake Superior’s microbial community, cold temperature, vast surface area, and long retention time allow airborne pollutants to enter the lake and stay.
• They document that: Most toxins make a long journey through the atmosphere before encountering Lake Superior. Once in Lake Superior, a toxin’s fate depends on its ability to cling to or become part of larger things, like algae. Toxins accumulate as they move up food webs. Most toxins are recycled into the food web by microbes.
• In addition, the researchers found that Lake Superior has just the right conditions to hold onto toxaphene (a pesticide banned in 1990), and that the lake contains twice as much as Lake Michigan and five times more than Lake Erie.

New York Sea Grant
Multi-state, bi-national team guides rapid research response to new invasive species

• New York Sea Grant is working to develop a rapid research response to the discovery of Hemimysis in Lake Ontario as part of a multi-state, bi-national group coordinated by NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL).
• A non-native invertebrate species, Hemimysis anomala, closely related to the possum shrimp that is native to the Great Lakes, was identified in a Lake Ontario water sample collected in spring 2006.
• Hemimysis anomala was found in Lake Michigan in November 2006 by GLERL scientists.
• Hemimysis, native to the Ponto-Caspian region (Caspian and Black Sea areas) of Eurasia, is presumed to have arrived in the Great Lakes system in the ballast of oceangoing ships.
• Research is needed to determine how the Hemimysis will affect the Great Lakes’ food webs and fisheries. Despite this uncertainty, top scientists are developing a research plan for Hemimysis in the Great Lakes.

Ohio Sea Grant
Sea Grant collaborates with state and federal agencies and other partners to clean up Ohio's Lake Erie marinas

• The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) and the Lake Erie Marine Trades Association asked the Ohio Sea Grant Program to help develop and administer the Ohio Clean Marinas Program.
• Ohio Sea Grant successfully launched the program with funding from the Ohio Coastal Management Program and NOAA.
• Sea Grant and partners conducted educational training/certification workshops, developed marina incentive programs, and coordinated marina certification site visits through the Ohio Clean Marinas and Clean Boater Programs. 
• To date, 35 marinas have pledged to become Clean Marinas and 19 marinas have been certified. Additionally, as a direct result of an Ohio Clean Marinas pilot program effort, 146,000 pounds of shrink wrap and greenhouse plastics were recycled by Mondo Plastics, Inc. into 21,000 guard-rail blocks and other products.

Pennsylvania Sea Grant
Pennsylvania NEMO influences Millcreek Township residential to design communities with conservation and land-use principals

• Through its Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) program, Pennsylvania Sea Grant has educated several municipalities about the advantages of allowing the conservation of residential neighborhoods in their communities. 
• As a result of Sea Grant's educational efforts, a developer in Millcreek Township is developing a residential conservation subdivision with 131 new housing units that will conserve 42 acres of open space on a 63.4 acre parcel (66 percent). 
• In addition, with Sea Grant's assistance, the Harborcreek Township is preparing amendments to its comprehensive plan and land-use ordinances that will provide developers with the option of constructing conservation design subdivisions.

Lake Champlain (VT) Sea Grant
Sea Grant helps develop decision-analysis model to increase effectiveness of cormorant control programs

• Sea Grant researchers studying double crested cormorant control programs found increased rates of breeding dispersal by cormorants from colonies where population management (egg oiling) took place. 
• The researchers also developed and tested a decision-analysis model that allows researchers and managers to evaluate various management alternatives and identify those alternatives that will meet agreed-upon cormorant population objectives for Lake Champlain, Lake Oneida, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. 
• A coordinated, multi-jurisdictional regional approach to cormorant management, guided by the newly developed decision-analysis model, will increase the effectiveness of cormorant control programs.

Wisconsin Sea Grant
Sea Grant demonstrates that eco-friendly marina construction can shelter habitat

• Marinas offer shelter and safety to boaters, but constructing them often destroys precious wildlife habitat.
• Wisconsin Sea Grant helped demonstrate, with the South Bay Marina in Green Bay, that sustainable building options provide opportunities to create habitat. 
• Sea Grant provided preliminary sketches, plans, designs and cost estimates.
• Sea Grant also raised money by writing a successful proposal for a habitat enhancement grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Great Lakes National Program Office.
• The newly constructed marina features rock headlands, captive beaches, expanded emergent marsh, rock spawning and reef stone, and large roosting trees that were preserved to attract waterfowl, shorebirds, eagles, fish and reptiles.