“It was an early morning start with sampling near Stony Point along the northern shores of Minnesota,” Ann Quinn, of Pennsylvania and Krysta Maas, of Minnesota, wrote in a blog post in July of 2016.
“As we approached Duluth, we stopped three times to sample near the shore and within the harbor. As we passed under the lift bridge, we could ‘clearly see’ the sediment plume from Monday night’s tremendous storm.”
Quinn and Maas were two of the 15 educators chosen last year to participate in the annual Shipboard Science Workshop aboard the U.S. EPA’s largest research and monitoring vessel on the Great Lakes, R/V Lake Guardian. Sea Grant’s Center for Great Lakes Literacy (CGLL) with U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) host the annual program. CGLL, formerly known of Centers for Ocean Science and Educational Exploration, is a collaborative effort led by Sea Grant educators throughout the Great Lakes watershed. This cruise is an important cornerstone of CGLL’s programming.
Every summer since 2006, CGLL joins forces with GLNPO to facilitate this weeklong workshop on one of the Great Lakes. Educators from not only traditional classrooms but also from places like museums, zoos and nature centers are welcome. The experience provides educators in the Great Lakes basin the opportunity to actually “do” science alongside aquatic researchers and learn strategies to integrate Great Lakes science into their curriculum.
IISG community outreach specialist Kristin TePas, who as the Sea Grant liaison with GLNPO accompanies every cruise, never tires of seeing teachers learning and researching in the field.
“I always look forward to watching how the educators take to the whole experience,” TePas said. “They come on rather green and leave at the end of the week looking like they have always lived on the ship, working like a well-oiled machine, taking part in field sampling and then analyzing in the lab.”
The hands-on, immersive nature of the experience fosters a broader and deeper understanding of science by integrating knowledge and research to enhance the teachers’ scientific investigation skills. Educators also expand their “treasure box” of lessons, teaching strategies, and network of like-minded colleagues.
Following their time aboard the R/V Lake Guardian, the teachers return to their classroom with newfound knowledge that they then implement into school initiatives, like organizing cleanups of nearby natural areas, starting real-world data collection and analysis for class projects, bringing scientists into the classroom to talk and work with students, and inspiring school science and environmental clubs.
Alex Valencic, an alumnus of the 2013 Lake Ontario cruise, incorporated his experience into his fourth-grade class in Illinois.
Each student spent six weeks studying a freshwater fish found in the Great Lakes and learned about its appearance, habitat, life cycle, and where it falls in the food web.
“My primary goal is for my students to understand the rich diversity of life that lives within the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Seaway,” he said. “Even though we don’t live right on a lake, Illinois is hugely impacted by Lake Michigan.”
Educators and scientists on recent cruises have taken advantage of a new way to communicate their experiences to those back on land. In addition to filing blog posts on the CGLL website, folks on the cruise have started using Twitter to document their journey while traversing the lake. Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Educator Allison Neubauer has compiled the tweets into a narrative of the cruise.
— Wisconsin Sea Grant (@UWiscSeaGrant) July 7, 2016
“Showing off the collaboration as it’s happening, making it accessible and informative,” Neubauer said, “is a great way to tell the important story of the work being done by the teachers and researchers in only seven days.”
The scientists onboard were equally impressed with the experience.
“A strong scientist-educator connection can bring the research alive as scientists share stories from the field or lab,” wrote Wisconsin researcher Emily Tyner in “Scientist Spotlights,” an ongoing series on the CGLL website.
“But the sharing process isn’t one-way,” Tyner pointed out. “Educators can offer a new and helpful way of looking at problems that stump scientists. Thinking back on my Lake Guardian cruise, the educators helped us gain helpful perspective when we faced hours trying to determine the problems with our experimental setup.”
The educators no doubt would agree. They get the chance—as many have put it—to take part in an adventurous, educational, inspiring, fun, and once-in-a-lifetime adventure!
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
August to November of my John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship was non-stop. I have been learning about international fisheries policy in my placement within NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspection Program all year and it was time to see it in action. My travels took me to five countries on three continents for five, very different international meetings.
Using the professional development funds provided by the fellowship, I traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in August for the 34th meeting of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). The conference was directly related to my doctoral thesis work and also tied in with work that NOAA Fisheries does in the Southern Ocean on the United States delegation to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). Many scientists from other nations’ delegations were also present at the SCAR meeting and it was an incredible opportunity to meet international Antarctic researchers, many of whom I would see two months later in Hobart, Tasmania for the 35th meeting of CCAMLR.
Lauren in Tasmania, Australia at Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
I thought central Illinois and Washington, D.C., were hot and humid during August and that I was well prepared for August in Kuala Lumpur. It turns out that a few higher percentage points of humidity make a huge difference in comfort level. Thankfully my hotel was connected to the convention center, meaning trips outside could be planned strategically. I was also fortunate to be staying at the same hotel as the U.S. delegation to SCAR and they welcomed me into their morning breakfast meetings to learn more about the inner workings of the conference organization.
The conference itself was not only a great way to keep up on the current research in my field of fish physiology but also learn about areas of Antarctic research that I had previously never considered on topics as wide-ranging as algal ecology to architecture and literature. There were a number of panels and sessions devoted to scientific advice for policy which is a topic that is extremely relevant to the Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship as well as my role in my fellowship office. Many of the topics discussed would make a second appearance two months later during the CCAMLR meeting.
Malaysia tea plantation
The 2016 CCAMLR meeting in Hobart, Tasmania was an exciting meeting to attend. Many of the species I was familiar with from my doctoral work were discussed in terms of conservation or fisheries catch allocation in regions of the Southern Ocean that I was familiar with. One of my largest projects of my fellowship year was drafting a background paper for the U.S. delegation to present to CCAMLR on incorporating independent review of fisheries stock assessments in the CCAMLR convention area.
I was able to be in attendance as a member of the U.S. delegation and see this paper brought to the floor in front of the 24 member nations and the European Union and discussed. The most exciting event to come out of the meeting, however, was the passing and adopting of the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area, a 1.55 million square kilometer section of the Southern Ocean set aside for conservation. This proposal, which is also the world’s largest marine protected area, was six years in the making and its adoption was met with applause, hugs, and tears from the nearly 250 people in attendance at the meeting. It was an emotional and exciting meeting to be a part of.
My fellowship is coming to an end, but I will be continuing my work with NOAA Fisheries as a full-time employee and foreign affairs specialist beginning on January 23. I am so grateful for the experience and training that this fellowship has provided to me this year.
Please visit the Fellowship and Scholarship page for more opportunities.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
For the month of January, the Sea Grant 50th is focusing on K to Gray education—yes, that includes everyone—and within IISG there is no shortage of resources for all ages.
Terri Hallesy who has been with the IISG education team for 13 years has seen teaching trends change over the years, but in the end, she knows it’s really very simple.
“I just enjoy working with all the dynamic, engaging specialists,” Hallesy says. “They each focus on diverse programs and target different audiences. What’s great is they’re always ready to collaborate using the latest and most relevant educational tools.”
Below we are highlighting five of the projects the education team has produced—in collaboration with specialists, other Sea Grants, as well as educators—that capture that cooperative spirit.
Nab the Aquatic Invader!
Launched in 2009, this website focuses on the suspects–aka the invasive species–in four regions of the country: Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf, and Great Lakes. In each region, visitors can see read interrogation interviews with the 10 Most Wanted AIS and learn their origin, problems they cause, and some control methods used to slow the spread of these species. The project was featured in the Smithsonian in 2010.
Collaborators included New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio Sea Grants.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s (IISG), The Medicine Chest, invites high school students to metaphorically open up those doors and investigate what makes those chemicals harmful to people, pets, and the environment when improperly disposed. The curriculum was updated last year.
Collaborators included Pennsylvania Sea Grant, U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, and Paul Ritter and Eric Bohm, P2D2 Program Administrators.
Sensible Disposal of Unwanted Medicines
When medications are flushed down the toilet, wastewater treatment plants can’t always filter out the harmful chemicals that can affect wildlife and even get into drinking water supplies. This 4-H guidebook and curriculum, designed for informal education audiences, provides five inquiry-based lessons to help high school youth understand the harmful effects of improper disposal of medicines and what they can do to help. Collaborators included 4-H and Penn High School, Mishawaka, Indiana.
Fresh and Salt Fresh and Salt is a collection of activities that enhance teacher capabilities to connect Great Lakes and ocean science topics. Designed to be used by teachers in grades 5-10, this curriculum provides an interdisciplinary approach to ensure that students achieve optimum science understanding of both Great Lakes and Ocean Literacy Principles.
Collaborators included Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence and Ashland University.
Lake Michigan by the Numbers This curriculum was created by teachers who attended a day-long workshop to learn how to incorporate buoy data into their classroom instruction. They created these data-rich, STEM-based lesson plans that boost understanding of Great Lakes issues by incorporating real-time data from Great Lakes buoys.
Collaborators included Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Lake Michigan Coastal Program, and Center for Great Lakes Literacy.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
Researchers at Purdue University are suggesting that fishing by Lake Michigan charter boat anglers has changed in recent years—and the scientists didn’t even have to visit the lake to notice these differences.
In fact, Nicholas Simpson who is the primary author on the study has never even fished Lake Michigan.
Working with Tomas Höök, fisheries ecologist and IISG associate director for research, Simpson, then an undergraduate, compiled 21 years of charter fishing data obtained from the Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources (DNR).
The data, derived from more than 500,000 trips, were readily available from the records charter anglers are required to report to their state DNR after each trip: number of fish harvested—not just caught, location fished, and hours spent fishing.
Simpson, Höök, and their co-authors evaluated patterns for five salmonid species—brown trout, Chinook salmon, coho salmon, lake trout, rainbow trout—harvested from May to September during 1992–2012.
“Because we’re looking at charter fisherman data, there are some biases,” Höök acknowledged. “They’re not randomly going out to catch fish. They go where they believe they’re more likely to catch fish.”
But there is an advantage to examining these data. Researchers often attempt to catch fish in a systematic, unbiased way, and may be limited by factors, such as funding timelines or resources. As a result, “the number of times the lake is fished or the overall number of fish caught wouldn’t be that much,” Höök pointed out. “Here we’re taking advantage of a huge number of people fishing over a long time period.”
The data set covers a time when the lake itself has changed dramatically. Lake temperature and other physical and biological factors are different today than they were in 1992. Over the course of the data set, the distribution and number of prey fish, such as alewives, available for salmon varied greatly.
In addition, while it may be hard to remember a time when zebra and quagga mussels—invasive filter feeders—didn’t line almost every inch of Lake Michigan, zebra mussels were just becoming an issue in the first year of data. Numerous studies have suggested that the mussels have changed the structure of the Lake Michigan food web over time.
The researchers assumed that salmonid species would not be immune to these changes, and some patterns emerged from the charter anglers’ records.
Over time, the amount of time charter anglers spent fishing increased. The anglers also shifted their efforts closer to shore and toward the western and northern parts of Lake Michigan. However, patterns in the harvest of individual salmonid species paint a complicated picture.
Harvest of lake trout and rainbow trout by charter anglers shifted closer to the shore. The same was not true for Chinook and coho, where harvest was consistently farther out in the lake. Brown trout were harvested progressively further west and south, while lake trout were harvested progressively further east. Multiple species were harvested in new locations and at new depths.
In general, the researchers suggest that many of the changes are related to salmonid feeding.
“Previous research has shown the brown trout and rainbow trout and to an extent lake trout are a little more flexible in their diets,” Simpson said. “They were more apt to shift closer to shore and to shallower depths for food. Chinook salmon and coho salmon may not have displayed those trends because they’re more reliant on alewife as prey, which tend to live farther out in the lake.”
“There’s no previous research in the literature that would suggest that coho or Chinook salmon would vary their diet as much as the other three species,” Simpson added.
The researchers stopped short of definitively declaring that fish are changing where they dwell in response to changes in distributions of Lake Michigan nutrients and prey, but they’re confident the results from this paper will be useful.
“The depth and breadth of this data set is what makes it powerful,” said Höök. “While we have to be aware of the biases, fisheries researchers do use catch and harvest data to infer species distributions.”
And while fisheries managers will ultimately need to consider this analysis alongside their own monitoring efforts, Simpson said, “I think it’s useful for fisheries managers especially on Lake Michigan to be able to see that there are shifts occurring.
My fascination with water began during my childhood. Growing up under strict water conservation measures in Singapore eventually led to working on nutrient loading issues relating to the Illinois River, and finally to my doctoral research on water quality in Alaska.
I brought all this to the Knauss Fellowship placement week in Washington D.C., where I proudly represented the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant. Placement week started out with a brief overview of the structure of the House and Senate, and the processes involved in creating and passing legislation.
Then came presentations from the 23 host offices, during which I and the other 11 legislative finalists were introduced to the personal offices of various members of Congress from across the country, and House and Senate committees that directly work on legislation concerning the nation’s oceans, atmosphere, and freshwater resources.
Over the next two and a half days, I interviewed with 20 different host offices. While admittedly they were grueling, the interviews were also very rewarding. Through them, I learned about key pieces of legislation that impact much of the freshwater and marine resources I had previously worked on. More importantly, the interviews also enabled me to get to meet some of the incredible people serving in Congress as well as their staff, whose work for the benefit of their constituents is truly remarkable. Getting placed in a congressional office could not have been a better end to placement week for me.
I am very excited to be a 2017 Knauss Fellow in the office of California U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman. I highly respect the path Rep. Huffman took before entering office, and the legislation he has sponsored and co-sponsored since then, especially in regard to natural resources. I look forward to directly assisting Rep. Huffman with his work on the House Committee on Natural Resources, with an emphasis on the Water, Power, and Oceans Subcommittee, which has oversight jurisdiction for NOAA fisheries and coastal issues. I also look forward to working with the committee staff, staff from other congressional offices, representatives from industry, non-profit groups, district field staff, and constituents living in California’s 2nd district.
Additionally, I will serve as the co-director of the bipartisan Congressional Wild Salmon Caucus. Given the grave issues California and the nation are currently facing in terms of water and coastal resources, I am confident that serving as a Knauss Fellow in this office over the next year will teach me a great deal.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
This is a tough year to single out just a handful of stories that made an impact. Researchers, specialists, partners, stakeholders all played an important part in making 2016 the best collaborative, communicative, cooperative, and adventurous year to date! So here goes…
Crude oil brings the Great Lakes risks and benefits Crude oil moving in and around the Great Lakes isn’t about to slow down anytime soon. Margaret Schneemann is working with other Great Lakes Sea Grant programs, industry, and academia to study this issue in an effort to support optimal movement of crude oil throughout the Great Lakes with regards to public safety, the economy, and environmental protection of coastal resources.
Milwaukee celebrates the rebirth of Lincoln Park In the spring of 2016, Milwaukee residents living near the once-degraded Lincoln Park had cause to rejoice as part of a celebration of the park and river cleanup. This event, organized by Caitie Nigrelli who helped inform the community over the course of the cleanup, was attended by stakeholders, politicians, and members of the Friends of Lincoln Park.
Flood Vulnerability Assessment tool is online and ready to help
After three years in the making, the Flood Vulnerability Assessment for Critical Facilities went live online to assist critical facilities—like hospitals, fire and police departments, and utility providers—evaluate their preparedness for when the next big rain storm hits. Molly Woloszyn led the project.
Restoring Great Lakes reefs brings back spawning grounds This first-person account was contributed by Nick Kalejs, a Purdue University student working alongside Tomas Höök and Mitch Zischke. His compelling research of the spawning habits of walleye and whitefish in the threatened reefs in Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron drew lots of online attention.
Resilient Watersheds Initiative recognized at White House Water Summit
In March, IISG got some D.C. love from The White House Water Summit. The summit highlighted the Prairie Research Institute’s Resilient Watersheds Initiative at the University of Illinois in its announcement of new steps being taken across the country to address key water issues. IISG was one of the organizations involved in the initiative.
UpClose series closes out with Loyola researcher
In this 12th and final issue of UpClose, the award-winning Q&A series, once again, gives readers an insider’s view of emerging contaminants research. Readers learned over the course of the series about the complex, and sometimes tricky, process of conducting field studies on new contaminants, and the potential implications of research on industries and regulations.
#SummerSurvey2016 on the Lake Guardian “Something that is new, however, is how much of the work is accessible to us landlocked lovers of the Great Lakes,” Allison Neubauer wrote this summer. She was referring to all the access social media has given us at home to the research happening on the lake. Tweets, videos, photos provided by Allison and the researchers on the ship during the survey as well as the Shipboard Science program have enriched the experience for all of us.
Lake Michigan fisheries workshop brings anglers and researchers together Mitch Zischke and Jay Beugly put on the first of hopefully many recreational fishing workshops that brought together more than 40 researchers, managers, stakeholders, and anglers to Hammond Marina in Indiana to learn about food web research, updates on fisheries, and ongoing monitoring in southern Lake Michigan.
Bigger shrimp can mean bigger profits
The demand for farm-raised shrimp is high, but as Kwamena Quagrainie points out in his recent study, there’s more money to be made by letting the shellfish continue to grow. “The value you can set by growing them to a larger size far out ways the cost.”
The 2.6-mile section of the river, located near the Port of Monroe, Michigan’s only port on Lake Erie, was contaminated with PCBs and lead from nearby manufacturing. Multiple cleanups starting in 1997 have removed a total of 135,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment.
The River Raisin was once home to American lotus beds and sturgeon populations. Pollution drove these species away, but the cleanup will restore the river and provide a healthy habitat for native fish, birds, and plants.
Dredging was then followed by a process known as capping that involves the installation of sand, clay, and stones over any residual contaminated sediment to create a barrier with the rest of the waterbody. This strategy is commonly used in combination with dredging.
“Contractors worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week over the last month or so to get the remedial cap installed,” Ben Wegleitner, IISG sediment remediation outreach specialist. “They wanted to get the top layer of armor stone in place before the next large freighter came into port.”
Wegleitner narrated the video above.
In the coming weeks, the equipment and the sediment processing area will go through a complete decontamination procedure before being removed from the site.
The area will continue to go through extensive monitoring before it’s officially delisted from the Areas of Concern list through a process that can take years.
“This site has been through a lot in the last 30 years,” Wegleitner said. “Without a doubt, this is a major milestone.”
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
This is Illinois is a series focusing on wildlife and waterways found in Illinois. The stories are created in conjunction with the Illinois Water Resources Center.
Voted as the state amphibian in 2005, the eastern tiger salamander is one of 20 species of salamanders found throughout Illinois. As the largest land dwelling salamander in North America, eastern tiger salamanders range in size from 6 to 13 inches. In the wild, salamanders have lived to be 16 years old. Not only are they the largest, but they also have the greatest range of all salamanders, spreading from southeastern Alaska, across the width of the United States and all the way down to the Mexican Plateau. Forests, grasslands, or mashes are common places to find them.
But you might have to look hard, because these salamanders hide beneath rocks and stumps, and burrows up to two feet deep. Sometimes referred to as a mole salamander, this nocturnal species spends the majority of its life in cool, dark places, preferring to dig its own burrows to escape warm temperatures. The best time to see salamanders out in the open is after a rain, at night, or during mating season.
The mating season for tiger salamanders begins in late winter or early spring when the ground begins to thaw. Thawing creates temporary ponds of water, where salamanders migrate to mate. One to two days after courtship, females lay up to 1,000 jelly-like eggs on twigs, leaves, or grass on the bottom of the pond. After hatching, the larvae stay in the pond until two to five months old. Once fully grown, eastern tiger salamanders begin to show the unique markings that earned them their name. The most common marking combination is a black background spotted by yellow or gold. Other possibilities are barred, which have vertical yellow stripes running down the body, as well as blotched, which have irregular markings all around their back.
Although their black and yellow markings act as a warning sign to potential predators, not all animals are scared away so easily. Owls, snakes, badgers, and bobcats are common predators of full-grown salamanders while aquatic insects, and snakes eat the larvae. To further aid in defense against threats, salamanders curl their bodies, close their eyes, and wave their tail high above their lowered head. A sticky, poisonous secretion is then released from their skin, often times flung by the salamander’s tail onto the predator’s face. If done effectively, the predator will retreat—at the minimum—with a burning sensation in its eyes and nose.
Skin plays an essential role in every tiger salamander’s survival. Not only does skin ward off predators by secreting poisons, it is also the site of respiration. To ensure that oxygen and carbon dioxide can be exchanged, mucus is secreted by glands to keep the skin moist. Glands also release chemicals that coordinate mating behavior. Because the skin is such an important organ for salamanders, it is very sensitive to environmental changes. Acid rain, for example, has been known to kill them. After repeated contact from the rain, the high acidity damages the outer skin tissue, making it impossible for the salamander to breathe.
Other environmental changes that cause problems for salamanders include habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation. Altering the land by channelizing streams, draining wetlands, and clearing forests have added to the reduction of habitat. Even removing temporary ponds causes a reduction in the population by destroying a breeding site or by killing the larvae, depending on the time of year.
In Illinois specifically, the majority of species have a gilled, aquatic, or larval stage when high quality water sources are required. Ensuring that salamanders have access to high quality land and water, large enough to sustain a diverse population, is essential to the survival of this amphibian.
In turn, tiger salamanders eat slugs, worms, snails, and insects while their larvae eat small crustaceans, insect larvae, and tadpoles.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
It’s easy to become focused on all the work that lies ahead, so we’re pausing, here at IISG, to appreciate some of the things we have to be thankful for:
Partners:
We couldn’t accomplish all that we have without all the incredible partners that help contribute to our program’s success.
Cleaner surroundings:
We love being able to help resilient communities regain the use of their land and waterways.
Rebounding wildlife:
We get giddy when we hear from communities telling us of sightings of birds or native fish in a once contaminated area.
Golden milestone:
Getting to celebrate a 50-year milestone of research, education, and outreach with 32 other incredible Sea Grants throughout the country.
Mystery:
The Great Lakes are full of secrets we have yet to decode which is why being a part of a team of innovative researchers makes the quest so thrilling.
Pollution prevention:
With the assistance of dozens of partners, agencies, and regular concerned individuals, we’re helping to reduce pharmaceuticals in our waterways.
Teachers:
We love collaborating with teachers in the classroom and touring with them on Lake Guardian every year.
Algorithms:
They do the hard work that otherwise would take months and would include more human errors. Algorithms help process all the data (and more data!) we recover from the Great Lakes and keep the researchers sane.
Water:
“With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on earth you live.”
— Sylvia Earle is an American marine biologist, explorer, author, and lecturer and has been a National Geographic explorer-in-residence since 1998. Earle was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and was named by Time Magazine as its first Hero for the Planet in 1998.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
Join the Invasive Crayfish Collaborative for an exciting webinar featuring Purdue University master`s student Izzy Paulsen. Izzy will share her mixed method study exploring how and why teachers use live crayfish and their interest in outreach. Her study draws from interview and survey data conducted in Great Lakes states.
Deadline extended! The IISG program, in cooperation with the @nationalparkservice at @indianadunesnps and @UrbanRivers in Chicago, is offering two internship opportunities to support conservation policy efforts. Sea Grant’s national Community Engaged Internship (CEI) program aims to broaden participation in coastal, ocean, Great Lakes, and marine sciences providing training and mentorship to the next generation of scientists, decision-makers, and citizens.
The program will do so by recruiting, retaining and engaging students in place-based research, extension, education, and/or communication that respects and integrates local ways of knowing.
Meet IISG grad student scholar, Lena Azimi! Lena is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Purdue University, specializing in geomatics with a background in environmental engineering. During her master’s program, Lena encountered remote sensing technology, which provides a way to collect data from a distance, especially remote or hard-to-reach places. This experience led her to pursue a Ph.D. degree and dive deeper into remote sensing and tackle urgent environmental challenges.
Join us this Thursday for a seminar on the latest fish biology, ecology, and fisheries science happening in Lake Michigan.
Speaker will include: -Anna Hill (Purdue) with an update on alewife diet and growth rates in Lake Michigan -Charlie Roswell (INHS) with an update on Lake Michigan and Calumet River smallmouth bass movement -Dan Makauska (IL DNR) with an update from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources
and ready to help
IISG “Hooks” IAGLR Leadership
Bigger shrimp can mean bigger profits
