Great Lakes, great danger (rip currents)

The Grand Rapids Press carries this article on the dangers of rip currents on the lakes:

This year, the National Weather Service will begin posting rip current alerts for the Great Lakes on its Web page, www.crh.noaa.gov/grr/. Parks on the shoreline will factor the forecasts into their usual warning flags: green for safe, yellow for caution, red for unsafe. The National Weather Service, the United States Lifesaving Association and the National Sea Grant Program are collaborating to educate the public.

Rip currents -- not to be confused with an undertow -- occur when wind pushes water onto a beach and a sand bar forms close to shore. If the sand bar breaks, the water rushes back out in a narrow channel. These mini-rivers can be as wide as 100 feet, and can move faster than five miles an hour, too fast for even an expert swimmer to combat.

Rip currents aren't easily predicted, which is why we all need to educate ourselves and take precautions. High surf or a nearby pier or jetty can create rip tide conditions. Michigan Sea Grant, a joint educational effort of Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, warns people to watch out for: a break in wave patterns; a clear channel of churning, choppy water; a line of foam or debris moving seaward; or a difference in water color.

East Tawas restaurant gets face-lift to stay open

The Bay City Times has this story on building improvements to the East Tawas Big Boy restaurant:

An East Tawas landmark that serves up shakes and Slim Jim sandwiches is getting a $650,000 makeover. Contractors will finish a top-to-bottom renovation of the Tawas Bay Big Boy restaurant in the coming days. The restaurant at 1222 N. US-23 has been in operation since 1982. A grand reopening took place Saturday, said Patrick Ruster, who oversees the restaurant's operation.

A group of Tawas-area investors purchased the Big Boy in April to save the business and the 45 jobs it provides, Ruster said. "The building was in poor condition and they were going to lose the franchise. It would have been closed down and boarded up," Ruster said.

The loan, along with funding from the new owners, is being spent to remodel the building's interior and exterior, including a banquet facility. The restaurant has seating for 135 people and the banquet room can seat up to 200, Ruster said. The restaurant will serve beer and wine and the banquet room will have a liquor license as well as wiring for multimedia presentations, he said.

Hhhmmmmm! Beer and wine with your Big Boy -- a taste treat.

Fish-sitters enjoy unique community service

It's that time of year again. Time for the salmon to be released into the AuSable and on to the lakes. The article from the Oscoda Press tells the story of the local imprinting tanks:

Each spring, dozens of area residents volunteer to baby-sit Chinook salmon fingerlings at twin fish imprinting tanks, located at the juncture of Van Etten Creek and the AuSable River, in Oscoda. Lake Huron Sportfishing, Inc. (LHS), which solicits the volunteers and coordinates scheduling, calls it fish-sitting.

In addition to protecting the 497,000 Chinook salmon fingerlings from predators, the volunteer fish-sitters guard against vandalism, water overheating and pump failure. And, they make sure the fish are fed and their environment is kept clean, according to the Alexanders, who also serve as LHS board members.

Fish sitting is a requirement of the partnership between LHS and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). As it does every year, the DNR deliver the fish once they are old enough to make the trip from the Platte River hatchery. Upon arrival, the salmon are piped from the tanker truck into the two side by side concrete pens filled with creek water. The fish remain in the pen until smolt, imprinting Van Etten Creek as their home stream, to which they will strive to return as adults, thus providing the area with a sports fishery. Smolt is the time in a young salmon's life that its biological clock tells it to migrate from its spawning stream to the sea, in this case from the holding pens to Lake Huron, via the AuSable River.

The fish averaged 2° inches in length and were almost black in color when they arrived on May 18. Under the care of the fish-sitters, they have grown to nearly six inches and are beginning to turn silver.

Creek water is constantly pumped into the two fish pens, both imprinting the fish and mimicking a natural environment. During hot weather, the water can become too warm for fish survival. When this occurs, cold groundwater from wells is blended with the creek water, Al said.

After their weeks in the holding pen, they will be acclimated to the river water, healthy and strong enough to evade predators.

Typically, the salmon will spend three to five years in the big lake before they return to reproduce and die, and also to provide Iosco County and the region with an offshore salmon fishery.