This project proposes to measure the economic benefit of water quality improvements by applying difference-in-difference analysis to local market outcomes in the Waukegan Harbor Area of Concern (AOC). The implementation of remediation projects in this AOC provides a unique opportunity to observe and compare affected ecosystems and economic outcomes before and after remediation. The analysis will use data on local housing market conditions and socioeconomic outcomes and the timing and location of sediment removal and habitat restoration projects in the Waukegan Harbor AOC. 

Lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) are facing a number of threats, including both climate change and predation by invasive species. Despite these ongoing threats to multiple life stages, research has rarely investigated pressures in combination. When studies do assess one of these threats, they often focus on a single life stage, and it is not often the embryonic stage. Our study aims to understand how climate change could impact predator recognition, memory, and avoidance in the two earliest life stages of lake sturgeon. We will “train” lake sturgeon embryos to recognize a predator using associative learning of olfactory alarm and predator cues. We will also raise the embryos in different thermal conditions. At the embryonic stage, we anticipate that those in the warmest water will exhibit the weakest antipredator behaviors, and those in the coolest will exhibit the strongest. At the larval stage, we anticipate those that were raised in the warmest water will have the weakest memory of the predator, and will lose their antipredator behaviors most quickly, while those raised in the coolest water will retain their memory of the predator the longest. Our research will help inform conservation plans for hatcheries looking to rear early-life lake sturgeon for release into Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes region more broadly.

This project was funded through the “Social and Economic Impacts of PFAS in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain Regions” opportunity. Key objectives are:

• To characterize fish consumption behavior among recreational fishers in two predominantly African American populations in the Lake Michigan area by holding a listening session and conducting surveys at fishing sites.
• To explore these two communities’ familiarity with contaminants in fish including PFAS, their understanding of fish advisories and the potential health risks of eating recreationally-caught fish, preferred sources of health information, and behavior change domains.

Michigan Sea Grant will support outreach efforts for this project. 

This project was funded through the “Social and Economic Impacts of PFAS in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain Regions” opportunity. 

The National Sea Grant Law Center seeks to build a foundation for advancing regional consensus regarding PFAS regulation by fulfilling the following project objectives: (1) conducting a legal scan of each state in the regions related to PFAS contamination to identify and compile relevant provisions; (2) conducting a comparative analysis of legal approaches adopted in the Great Lakes, as well as in other regions in the country, to illustrate the range and differences in policy tools; and (3) developing 2-3 case studies of state actions addressing PFAS contamination to explore policy challenges and legal risks.

Minnesota Sea Grant and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant will support outreach efforts for this project.

This project was funded through the “Social and Economic Impacts of PFAS in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain Regions” opportunity. 

The main objective of our proposal is how to communicate risk to focus on factors that could increase compliance with PFAS recommendations (e.g., using water filtration systems) and avoid unintended consequences, such as dismissing a complex message due to lack of understanding or generating fear and threat perception without a means to alleviate the threat. We have three studies where we focus specifically on: 1.) What types of information people look for online about PFAS; 2.) what type of messaging is most effective for communicating about the health risk of PFAS in an experiment with a focus on the variables of efficacy to enact recommendations, level of fear and threat conveyed by the message, and complexity of the message, and, 3.) What PFAS-related messages are most engaging in a real-world paid message test conducted on social media to residents who rely on municipal water supplies, including tests targeting both English and Spanish-speakers.

Wisconsin Sea Grant will support outreach efforts for this project.

This project was funded through the “Social and Economic Impacts of PFAS in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain Regions” opportunity. 

The objectives of this study are: i) to advance the understanding of community risks of PFAS pollution exposure in MI, NY, and PA; and ii) to examine the effectiveness of the local regulations in the three states on motivating public awareness and avoidance behaviors.

New York Sea Grant is supporting outreach efforts for this proposal.