“The Nature Conservancy said a team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame, Central Michigan University and its own organization found evidence of DNA of Eurasian ruffe in Calumet Harbor, south of Chicago.

 

Two positive samples from the harbor were collected on July 8. The harbor is at the mouth of the Chicago-area waterway system. Environmental DNA is a surveillance tool that can be used to monitor the genetic presence of aquatic species.

 

The waterway system is part of an engineered canal that provides an artificial link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin and has been infiltrated with invasive Asian carp from the Mississippi for years.

 

That same system has the potential to introduce Eurasian ruffe in the Mississippi, according to the Nature Conservancy. The group said the genetic findings underscore the need for a permanent barrier to block species from moving between the Great Lakes and Mississippi systems.”

Non-profit organization The Nature Conservancy recently acquired a small island in Lake Michigan that is used by migrating birds as a stopping point on their journey. 

“St. Martin Island is part of a chain that runs between Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula and Michigan’s Garden Peninsula… 

 

The Luber family sold it to the nonprofit conservancy for $1.5 million dollars. The Nature Conservancy says the price was well below market value.

 

Eventually the island will be included in the Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

 

Dave Ewert is a senior scientist with the Nature Conservancy in Michigan. He says the chain of islands is really important for migrating land birds in the spring and fall.

 

‘If they’re caught out away from mainland then they’re going to look for islands to come down, land, feed, rest, seek refuge from predators. So these islands really are a godsend to these migratory birds,’ Ewert said.

 

He says more than 100 species have been documented in the chain of islands. St. Martin is one of the larger islands at more than 1,200 acres. The U.S. Coast Guard has a light tower on the island.”

“Plant species were chosen based on the results of a risk assessment tool developed in Indiana by the Aquatic Plant Working Group. The tool evaluates species based on factors like ability to thrive in the Great Lakes and difficulty to control. At the request of Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant organized and facilitated the group, which included representatives from the aquatic plant industry, aquarium and water garden hobbyists, state agencies, academia, and non-governmental organizations. Their efforts led to a rule approved last year that bans the sale of 28 invasive aquatic plants in Indiana.

 

‘It is important to have consistent regulations across the Great Lakes Basin. We want our policies to be consistent with our neighbors since invasive species don’t respect political boundaries,’ said Kevin Irons, aquaculture and aquatic nuisance species program manager for Illinois DNR. ‘Prevention is the first and cheapest way to protect Illinois from aquatic invasive plants, and risk assessment tools like the one built in Indiana allow us to identify and control high risk species without unduly regulating the industry.'”

“Under mostly sunny skies and temperatures hovering near 30 degrees, a three-man crew from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the DNR motored across the bay in a flat-bottomed boat looking for promising sites to sample.

 

A scientist at the University of Notre Dame pioneered the technique of using DNA to search for populations of Asian carp. But the first step is far from rocket science:

 

One member of the crew stretched in a nearly prone position over the side of the boat and dipped a 2-liter plastic bottle into the 40-degree water. The driver read out GPS coordinates, the water temperature and the depth. The third man from the crew scribbled down the information.

 

The samples are processed in Green Bay and then packed with dry ice and sent to a Fish and Wildlife Service laboratory in La Crosse, where the DNA sequencing is done and water is matched with known DNA specimens of the two carp species. The samples will be queued up with hundreds of other potential carp samples from Illinois and elsewhere.”

Recent research on Great Lakes contaminants has shown that microplastics – small beads of plastic used in many exfoliants, toothpastes, and other products – are contributing to pollution levels. As a result, mayors near the Great Lakes are calling on manufacturers to remove the plastics from their products. 

From TheObserver.ca: 

“The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, representing more than 100 Canadian and U.S. cities, is urging industry and governments to have microplastics removed from personal care products.

Its call came as a study on microplastic pollution was published based on sampling last summer on Lake Huron, Erie and Superior led by Sherri Mason, a professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia.

‘It takes that kind of initiative to get things to change,’ she said of the mayor’s support for the issue.
‘It’s not so much about cleaning it up, as it is about stopping it at its source.’

Mason returned to the lakes for seven weeks this summer to collect more samples, including one from the St. Clair River at Sarnia that will be analyzed as the study continues.

Samples taken in 2012 included green, blue and purple coloured spheres, similar to polypropylene and polyethylene microbeads in consumer products, such as facial cleaners.”

Read the complete article at the link above.

Following last year’s record low water levels in the Great Lakes, and in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron specifically, this year’s rains have helped push those levels back towards the historical average. 

From MLive.com: 

“Heavy October rain could help Lake Michigan and Lake Huron continue to rise toward the long term average water level. Lake Michigan – Huron is still 15 inches below the long term average, but is 11 inches higher than this time last year. Slowly the lake level is increasing. The lake levels will likely fall over the next four months. This is a normal cycle. If the lakes don’t fall as much as normal this winter, the lakes are set up to be higher next summer than this summer…

 

All of this rain can help Lake Michigan – Huron not fall as much as usual in November.”