The Wilmette buoy returned to Lake Michigan earlier this week. But a few days before it departed, several of its biggest admirers stopped by to meet it at Lloyd Park in Winnetka, Illinois.
Wil, as some of the IISG scientists call it, lay prone in the parking lot withstanding the blustery winds and cold temperatures. The ugly weather didn’t stop the 10 or so Chicago-area sailors from coming to the open house, leaning in close and examining the body of the machine they’ve come to rely on after only one season.
One remarked at how much smaller it was than he thought. Others stood and posed with it for pictures.
It’s hard not to anthropomorphize the buoy. Once in the water, the weather and lake condition data and images it provides are like sage advice coming from a reliable friend.
“I’m with the Glencoe Boat Club and we were excited when it was put in,” Eric Brislawn of Buffalo Grove, Illinois said. “We’ve been watching data on it all summer and using it. We—the boaters, the sailors up here—had nothing like this anywhere nearby…so this really filled a nice gap for weather information.”
The buoy might not have made it in the water without the help of Laurie Morse of Glencoe, Illinois, who along with Purdue University, helped secure a grant to fund it.
“We have already noticed since it’s been in the water since 2015 that it’s made a difference in the quality of our marine forecast and it’s really important to all us recreational boaters,” said Morse, who was with her husband at the open house.
“Well, we look for it in the water,” Morse remarked. “I’ve never been successful in finding it on the lake, but this is the first time I’ve seen the buoy. So this is very exciting.”
Jay Beugly, IISG aquatic ecology specialist, and scientists Ed Verhamme and John Bratton from LimnoTech, organized the open house and were on hand to talk about all the nearshore environmental-sensing this bright yellow, 610-pound buoy is capable of.
“We were happy that people came with lots of questions. Some didn’t know much about it. Others followed it closely last year,” said Beugly. “This is the first full season that this buoy will be deployed, and we want people to know that it’s out there. We were excited to be able to stand next to the buoy while it’s out of the water and talk to folks and see how we might improve their experience.”
Residents of Illinois, Indiana, and the broader Great Lakes region will benefit from new IISG research. Altogether, the four, two-year projects will receive more than $780,000 starting in 2016.
John Kelly, a Loyola University biologist, will survey eight major rivers around the lake to trace the origins of microplastics pollution and what river characteristics—such as
surrounding land use or nearby wastewater treatment plants—may be driving this.
Purdue University’s Zhao Ma will lead an interdisciplinary team that seeks to reduce nutrients, sediment, and E. coli contamination in southern Lake Michigan. The team will use models to assess best management practices (BMP) for reducing runoff and the willingness of individuals to implement these BMPs. Looking at these two approaches together will allow them to optimize the best courses of action to reduce overall pollution.
A project led by Sara McMillan, who studies biogeochemistry and hydrology at Purdue University, will examine drainage ditch design from multiple perspectives. McMillan will compare designs that improve long-term stability and ecological effectiveness.
And Beth Hall, Midwestern Regional Climate Center director, will work with Paul Roebberof the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to improve how flash flooding events in urban centers are predicted and communicated. Hall and Roebber’s project is partially funded by Wisconsin Sea Grant.
Last week, the Purdue University Retail Pharmacy became the latest participant in IISG’s multi-state effort to help communities properly dispose of their expired, unused, and unwanted pharmaceuticals.
This is the first pharmacy-based collection program that IISG has helped to start. Collaborators also include the Yellow Jug Old Drugsmedicine take-back program, and Purdue College of Pharmacy.
Laura Kammin, IISG pollution prevention program specialist, worked closely with Patricia Darbishire, a Purdue clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice, to get the ball rolling.
“The reason I wanted to work with Patricia is that I know we will get really good feedback on how the program works from the pharmacy’s perspective,” Kammin said. “And because they will be conducting surveys, we’ll have solid data that can help improve collection programs in other communities in Illinois and Indiana.”
The Yellow Jug Old Drugs program was started in 2008 by the Great Lakes Clean Water Organization working with pharmacies to collect and properly dispose of non-controlled substances to help reduce their impact on the Great Lakes.
In September of 2014, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) changed the rules to allow pharmacies to take controlled substances. Individuals with unwanted medications can visit a participating pharmacy and dispose of both types of drugs in the yellow container that contains a substance that renders the pharmaceuticals non-retrievable.
To date, The Yellow Jug Old Drug Program has properly disposed of more than 52 tons of prescription waste—which means a reduction of pharmaceuticals getting into waterways.
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, who is the co-chair and founder of the state’s Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force, was also in attendance.
“Nearly 80 percent of heroin users say they started out abusing prescription drugs, and prescription drugs are causing half of the drug overdose deaths in our state,” Zoeller said. “Purdue’s participation in Yellow Jug Old Drugs will not only provide more disposal options to the community, it will instill in young people the risks of prescription drug abuse and hopefully save lives.”
Kammin was excited about the enthusiasm among the partners. “We all agree that we want to get drugs out of the community safely and to reduce the environmental impacts of improper disposal,” Kammin said.
For more information about how to start a medicine take-back program in your community, check out more resources available at www.unwantedmeds.org.
Purdue University Retail Pharmacyaccepts both prescription and over-the-counter medications, including pills, ointments, liquids, and creams, Monday though Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The pharmacy is located at the Robert Heine Pharmacy Building, 575 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, Ind.
By Anne Packard (Anne is a summer intern working with Laura Kammin, IISG pollution prevention specialist)
Can pharmacists play a role in pollution control? This is the question I asked myself when I heard about an internship through Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant.
As a third year student at Purdue University College of Pharmacy, I became interested in this internship because of my love for the Great Lakes. I am a western Michigan native, so the freshwater lakes are dear to my heart. At a young age, I took advantage of all the benefits living close to Lake Michigan can provide. I have fond memories of sailing, watching the sunset, and building sand castles on the beach. During the school year, being a pharmacy student feels like a 24 hour a day job. The amount of time spent studying and thinking about pharmacy related topics is quite demanding. I have to love what I study. The pollution prevention internship is a great way for me integrate two key facets of my life—my pharmaceutical knowledge and my love of the environment and the Great Lakes.
My role with Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is to help with education in the community with regards to medication pollution and disposal. Another major aspect that ties in my pharmacy experience will be to educate people about the consequences for misuse, accidental poisonings and abuse of unused medication. I also am working with a Purdue College of Pharmacy professor to organize data to better understand the needs in the Lafayette area related to medication take back programs.
Even in the few weeks since starting, my knowledge base on medication pollution has expanded substantially. By the end of this summer I hope to take the knowledge I have gained and apply it in my future career as a pharmacist. Through this experience I want to be knowledgeable about the resources available for proper medication disposal as well as tools to implement safe disposal practices wherever my career takes me.
As with all student interns, there is always a dream of making a difference in the job they are in. Although, I do not expect to make groundbreaking changes, I hope I can help my community take a step in the right direction to minimize pharmaceutical pollution in the environment.
Swimmers, boaters, and anglers visiting Indiana’s coastline can once again learn about conditions in southern Lake Michigan with real-time data collected by the Michigan City buoy. The buoy, launched for the first time in 2012, returned to its post four miles from shore today to collect data on wave height and direction, wind speed, and air and surface water temperatures.
The only one of its kind in the Indiana waters of the lake, the Michigan City buoy and its temperature chain helps anglers and boaters find fishing hot spots and identify the safest times to be out on the lake.
Scientists at the National Weather Service in northern Indiana will also use wave height and frequency data collected throughout the season to better anticipate the locations of strong waves and currents that cause dangerous swimming conditions. Real-time data on nearshore temperatures and wave characteristics is also vital for research on fisheries and nearshore hydrodynamics.
Data will be available on IISG’s websiteuntil the buoy is pulled out for the winter in mid-October. The site shows snapshots of lake conditions—updated every 10 minutes—as well as trends over 24-hour and 5-day periods. Buoy-watchers can also download raw historical data at NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center.
And starting later this season, our website will also relay data collected by a new environmental sensing buoy placed north of Chicago. In addition to allowing people to track waves and temperatures, the data collected by this buoy could also help officials warn beachgoers when contamination levels may make swimming unsafe.
Fisheries managers have long known that the population of rainbow smelt in the Great Lakes is on the decline. Once so abundant that they could be fished out with a pot or strainer, this important prey fish survives today in numbers hovering near historic lows. Numerous causes for the falling population have been proposed, but new research suggests that the population patterns and the forces driving them are more complicated than previously believed.
The 2014 study reveals that number of smelt that survive their first few months has actually been on the rise since 2000. But this increase in hatchlings isn’t translating into more adults, and it is unclear when and why that breakdown is happening. Whatever the cause, the loss of adult rainbow smelt is enough keep the population trending down even as offspring survival improves.
Researchers from USGS, IISG, Purdue University, and the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, discovered the unexpected increase in offspring after analyzing roughly 40 years of fisheries data using a novel modeling technique.
Fish populations are typically analyzed using a statistical model that that assumes the relationships between different variables—things like number of offspring, number of adults, degree of predatory pressure, and amount of rainfall—remain the same over time. For this study, researchers used statistical tools rarely used by fishery scientists that better reflect the ever-changing nature of the Great Lakes and make it possible to detect more subtle population patterns.
Perhaps most surprising is that offspring survival is on the rise in Lake Michigan despite the fact that their parents are up to 70 mm shorter now than they were in the 1970s.
“We were expecting to see a decrease in productivity because the adults are maturing at smaller sizes, which should mean fewer eggs and less healthy hatchlings,” said Zach Feiner, a PhD student at Purdue University and lead author of the study. “This raises a lot of questions about how well we understand rainbow smelt fisheries.”
Researchers speculate that the drop in the number of adult smelt may actually be allowing hatchlings to thrive. Adult rainbow smelt frequently supplement their diet of zooplankton by dining on their offspring. Fewer adults means fewer predators for juvenile smelt. The need to find food in a lake infested with millions of quagga and zebra mussels that filter out plankton may also be driving adults further out into the lake and away from spawning grounds.
A closer look at web tools and sites that boost research and empower Great Lakes communities to secure a healthy environment and economy. Aquaculture plays an increasingly vital role in securing long-term food supplies, and the Midwest is poised to help. In fact, a rich supply of raw materials and proximity to large markets makes Illinois and Indiana prime locations for aquaculture farms and related industries. To help producers cash in on these benefits, IISG, University of Illinois Extension, and Purdue Extension teamed up to create Aquaculture Economics and Marketing Resources. The site provides leading research and how-to information for developing a productive, innovative, and profitable aquaculture business. Visitors interested in starting a new business will find resources on everything from establishing an organizational structure to creating a business plan to securing financing. New and veteran producers can also find tips for connecting with consumers and tapping into niche markets. Aquaculture Economics and Marketing Resources is one of several tools IISG uses to help aquaculture producers define markets and create value-added opportunities for their products. Since 2005, Kwamena Quagrainie has held roughly 40 workshops with over 1,200 participants. These and other efforts in Indiana resulted in about $15 million in farm sales of aquaculture products in 2013, a nearly five-fold increase over 2005. To learn more about how aquaculture is strengthening Indiana’s economy, read our 2013 program impacts.
2014 has been an exciting year for IISG. New partnerships were forged, major projects were launched, and existing programs continued to grow. As we head towards another new year, let’s take a look back at some of the highlights of the last 12 months.
–More than $300,000 was awarded to three research projects that will improve understanding of the Lake Michigan nearshore food web, uncover connections between sediment removal projects and a community’s ability to weather environmental hazards, and identify why people adopt stormwater management practices.
–The Great Lakes Social Science Network gave researchers, natural resource managers, weather forecasters, and educators the information they need to ensure safety and planning messages meet the needs of local communities.
–A mobile app offering a self-guided walking tour of Chicago’s historic and scenic downtown shoreline was released for Android and iOS.
–We said goodbye to several staff members and friends and welcomed 10 more to the team.
–The Illinois Clean Marina Program celebrated one year and six certifications.
–We got some help spreading the word about AIS prevention from celebrity newcomers Lady Quagga and Jumpin’ Jack.
–The Michigan City buoy returned to the nearshore waters of Lake Michigan with a new sensor chain that measures temperatures at different depths.
–Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced a $1.1 million investment in Blue Island to expand and improve stormwater management efforts that began in partnership with IISG.
–Great Lakes Monitoring made it possible for researchers to analyze decades of high-quality monitoring data from across the region in minutes.
–Illinois EPA and the state Department of Agriculture released a plan to reduce the nutrient pollution behind the Gulf ‘Dead Zone.’ A big thanks to all of the partners and collaborates that made these and other 2014 successes possible!
Former intern Jacob Wood received an award earlier this month for a poster he presented during Purdue University’s GIS Day, an annual event dedicated to geospatial research and geographic information systems (GIS).
“The poster detailed my work over the summer with IISG on mapping Lake Michigan catch data. Jarrod Doucette and myself have been working creating a web app for the IISG website to visualize two decades of recorded fish catch data from the Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources. I thought presenting the poster at Purdue’s GIS Day would be a great way to show the work that I accomplished for IISG over the summer.”
Read more about our summer internship program and hear from past interns about what they are up to now.
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