US Announces $575 Million for Coastal Climate Resilience
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced its first-ever Climate Resilience Regional Challenge, which will provide $575 million in funding through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to help coastal and Great Lakes communities, including tribal communities in those regions, become more resilient to extreme weather and other impacts of the climate crisis. The Challenge is the first and largest funding opportunity released under the $2.6 billion Inflation Reduction Act climate resilience framework that the Department unveiled in June. “Through this first-ever regional approach to
NOAA, Coast Guard to Collect Data from a Great Lakes Icebreaker
This week, NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) scientists worked with the U.S. Coast Guard during ice-breaking in Lake Superior Harbor in Duluth, Minnesota, aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Spar. This project is the first set of experiments funded by the newly developed Great Lakes Center of Expertise.Teams from both Coast Guard District 9 and NOAA deployed uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) with multispectral, thermal and LIDAR sensors to collect data while the Spar was breaking ice in the harbor. The team collaborated to develop data and mapping products that will advance
Ballast Water Management is Reducing the Flow of Invasive Species into the Great Lakes
by a host of environmental stressors from human activities. Among the most insidious and impactful of these is invasion by non-native species.Over the past two centuries, established populations of nearly 190 non-native species of invertebrates, fishes, plants and microbes have been discovered in the Great Lakes basin. They were introduced through several sources and pathways including canals, pet release, bait bucket dumping, aquaculture escapes and — most notably — ballast water discharge from transoceanic ships.Ballast tanks of ships may contain various life stages of invertebrates, larval
Canada Invests Over $3.9 million to Support the Great Lakes
Today, Terry Duguid, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced an investment of more than $3.9 million over three years in 39 new projects in Ontario through the Great Lakes Protection Initiative, part of the Government of Canada's Freshwater Action Plan.The announcement includes $98,000 over two years to the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority to conduct an assessment and provide options to manage contaminated sediment at Lyons Creek East in the Niagara River Area of Concern. The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne will receive $154,000 over two years to
New Under-ice Observing Capabilities Could Lead to New Discoveries in the Great Lakes
During the dog days of summer here in the Great Lakes, scientists at NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) are already thinking about the ice that will form on the lakes this winter.This year, NOAA GLERL and a team of federal, university, and industry partners are conducting test deployments of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in Lake Michigan, with the ultimate goal of using it under lake ice during winter to collect ecological and water quality data. Observations of winter ecology are difficult to obtain compared to observations in the ice-free season, when most
Research Buoys Deployed in Lake Michigan
and direction and wave height and direction.“We have never had any measurements in East Grand Traverse Bay previously, and having three strategically placed allows comparative understanding of the three separate but connected water bodies.” said Hans Van Sumeren, director of NMC’s Great Lakes Water Studies Institute.Purchased in 2021 with a $48,804 grant NMC received from the Great Lakes Observing System, the buoys were outfitted with webcams over the winter. The video feed of the lake surface is updated every 30 minutes.“These buoys and data will support a broader understanding
New Freshwater Research and Education Center Unveiled
fish hatchery in the Cloverland Electric Cooperative Hydroelectric Plant.Grand opening tour stops include a cutting-edge mesocosm laboratory, an experimental system in which to perform a broad range of scientific investigation spanning aquaculture to contaminants to invasive species. There also is a Great Lakes Discovery Center, free and open to the public, with real-world interactive displays on the ecology of the Great Lakes, and a Discovery Lab that will host K-12 and undergraduate classes in the near future, including a Career and Technical Education program in natural resources for high schoolers
Fugro to Deploy Latest RAMMS Tech to Map Lake Huron
to acquire 3,147 square kilometers of high-resolution bathymetry data over Lake Huron for the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS).The survey is expected to last six months from data collection to data delivery and will support the agency’s ongoing nautical charting updates in the country’s Great Lakes region.Fugro has used RAMMS throughout North America, the Caribbean and Europe since launching the next-generation airborne lidar system in 2018. In addition to nautical charting, RAMMS has supported offshore wind, coastal management and sea-level rise projects, in line with Fugro’s strategy
Saginaw Bay’s Marine Ecosystem Revival
purpose of the rock reef restoration project is to restore off-shore rock reef spawning habitats that benefit Walleye, Lake Whitefish, and Lake Trout to name a few.JW Fishers SeaLion-2 Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) being lowered into the water. Photo: JW FishersThe project was approved and funded by a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) grant of $980,000 and a grant of $25,000 from Saginaw Bay Watershed Initiative Network (Saginaw Bay WIN). The total project is just over $1 million. In the end, two acres of reef habitat were restored.There are several project partners for the restoration project
February 2024
