Lake Superior's water level drops

The Marguette Mining Journal has this article on current lake levels for Lake Superior and the effects on shipping:

Lake Superior’s water level is down, but not as much as forecasters had expected. Superior is down to 600.9 feet above sea level, below the 601.3 foot target level set by the Army Corps of Engineers.

According to National Weather Service forecaster Andrew Just, the biggest factor in low lake levels was the lack of ice cover over the winter. Lack of ice promotes evaporation and increases lake effect snow. Much of this winter’s evaporated lake water appears to have fallen as snow within the Superior watershed, though, meaning much of that water may find its way back into the lake, Just said.

According to NWS surveys, the Huron Mountains region still has between 40 and 50 inches of snowpack. The Keweenaw has between 35 and 42 inches of snow, while open areas along the lake near Marquette and Baraga have only 5-10 inches of snow.

The lack of ice on Lake Superior hasn’t gone unnoticed by Great Lakes freighter captains, who started running their boats earlier than normal this year. In fact, in the 25 years Capt. John Carlson has been sailing the Great Lakes, he said he doesn’t remember a winter when lake ice was so scarce.

Missing in Huron: Bottom feeders

The Detroit Free Press has an article on further research done on fish populations within Lake Huron:

Lake Superior is big, clear and beautiful, yet in terms of fish production it's a near desert compared to the other Great Lakes. Now fisheries scientists say changes they started seeing in Lake Huron a few years ago might mean that the second-biggest of the Great Lakes is on its way to becoming an equally unproductive version of Superior.

Fisheries biologists talked about Lake Huron this week at the Great Lakes Fishery Commission meeting in Windsor. They have been amassing huge amounts of information and can tell us what's happening with fish in the lake. But about all they can do is stand back and wait to see what happens next because they don't know how to fix things.

The problem apparently starts with some of the smallest creatures in the food chain.

Mary Balcer of the University of Wisconsin-Superior studies these tiny creatures. She found that fish can get much more energy by eating a tiny shrimp called diaporeia than from many other kinds of zooplankton. But diaporeia have almost disappeared from most of Lake Huron for reasons scientists have yet to figure out, although they suspect that diaporeia and other zooplankton can't compete with exotic zebra and quagga mussels that invaded the lakes.

Balcer also discovered that larval fish eat different sizes of zooplankton at different times in their lives, and the right size of zooplankton is no longer available at the right time for the little fish in most of the lake.

"We used to think the alewives disappeared because the salmon ate them all," said Jim Johnson, a DNR research biologist. "Now we learn from Mary Balcer's work that the alewives had the rug pulled out from under them when the zooplankton crashed,"

DEQ wants tougher rules on clearing Great Lakes beaches

The Detroit News describes efforts to make it tougher to clean or clear vegetation from beach fronts:

Tighter restrictions should be imposed on clearing vegetation from Great Lakes shorelines because it alters water chemistry and damages fish habitat, state regulators said. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality on Monday said a recent scientific analysis showed that uprooting aquatic plants in coastal wetlands harms young game fish such as yellow perch and bass. It also reduces populations of invertebrates such as insects and snails that form crucial links in the aquatic food chain, the agency said.

Shoreline property owners in some areas have pushed for the right to remove vegetation that sprouted in exposed bottomland areas when lake levels began dropping in the late 1990s. Some resort and hotel owners say the flora is unsightly on beaches and bad for business.

The state Legislature in 2003 temporarily exempted mowing and other beach maintenance activities such as raking and leveling sand from the wetland protection law. And it established two areas - Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron and Lake Michigan's Grand Traverse Bay - where proposals to completely remove waterfront vegetation would be given expedited consideration.

The law instructed the DEQ to evaluate the effects of the new procedures and issue a report. Scientists with Michigan State University and Grand Valley State University led the study.

Unless extended by the Legislature, the law dealing with Saginaw and Grand Traverse bays will expire June 3. The beach maintenance law is scheduled to lapse Nov. 1, 2007.

Based on the study's findings, the DEQ wants to let both measures expire and replace them with new rules.

Under the proposed regulations, vegetation removal would require a permit - a higher hurdle than the expedited letter of request now required for the two bays. The agency has approved 78 of 90 such requests since the 2003 law took effect.

Additionally, the DEQ said it would set new rules for beach maintenance after the existing ones expire. Minimal activities such as raking that don't disturb plant roots would be allowed, but permits would be required for more substantial actions such as mowing and mechanical disking. The type of permit would depend on how disruptive the work would be.

U.S. puts machine-guns on Great Lakes coast guard vessels

The CBC news reports on the arming of the Coast Guard on the Great Lakes:

For the first time since 1817, U.S. Coast Guard vessels on the Great Lakes are being outfitted with weapons – machine-guns capable of firing 600 bullets a minute.

The War of 1812 saw violent battles on Lake Erie and Lake Huron between U.S. troops and British forces, which were largely composed of militias from Britain's colonies in what is now Canada. After the war, the United States and Britain – and later Canada – agreed to demilitarize the Great Lakes waters.

The Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817 allowed each country to station four vessels, each equipped with an 18-pound cannon, to safeguard the Great Lakes.

The antiquated treaty has recently been reinterpreted because of U.S. concerns about customs violations, human smuggling and international terrorism.

Each vessel is now equipped with a 7.62-mm machine-gun, a light military gun that is the same calibre as a deer rifle but capable of shooting 600 bullets per minute. Warning shots will be fired when vessels refuse to stop, said Colclough, who is based at the U.S. Coast Guard's Great Lakes headquarters in Cleveland.

Under the reinterpretation, which both sides say honours the spirit of the original treaty, vessels may be outfitted with machine-guns of sizes up to .50-calibre. That would be big enough to bring down a helicopter and shoot through a light-armoured vehicle.

That'll stop those pesky jet skis!!

Season's first laker departs

The Duluth News Tribune announces the start of the 2006 shipping season:

Warm weather and power producers' keen appetite for coal meant an early start to Twin Ports shipping this year. When the 1,004-foot James R. Barker set off Tuesday from Superior, loaded with 58,000 tons of coal destined for Taconite Harbor, it logged the earliest departure in the Twin Ports' recent history.

"We'll already have three trips in by the time the (Soo) Locks open and most of the other vessels begin to stir," said Capt. Joe Buonocore of the James R. Barker. The Soo Locks will open at midnight March 25; shipments before that date will be restricted to ports within Lake Superior.

What's draining two Great Lakes?

The Detroit News has this update on the sinking levels of Huron and Michigan:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is disputing some key findings of a controversial report that claims the levels of lakes Michigan and Huron have been on a permanent decline for at least 44 years.

But the Corps is also calling for a detailed study of the apparent drop in those two lakes -- which scientists consider one lake system -- and a corresponding rise in Lake Erie over time.

Compiled for a Canadian homeowners association, it said man-made alterations may have set off unending riverbed erosion that lets water from the two lakes spill into Erie, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Atlantic Ocean faster than it's replenished.

An irreversible drop -- nearly 3 feet in a century and more than expected since the last dredging -- has been costly for wildlife, commercial shipping, recreation and tourism, according to the authors.

The chief evidence of erosion is a 60-foot-deep hole in the St. Clair River bottom near the Blue Water Bridge at Port Huron. The Corps of Engineers said the depression has shown up in data from earlier in the 20th century, but the study's researchers said it has grown longer and wider.

The hole is in an area where the Corps dredged out two feet of bottomlands to deepen the shipping channel down the middle of the upper half of the river from 25 feet to 27 feet. Part of a more extensive revamping of the Great Lakes system to accommodate oceangoing vessels from the St. Lawrence Seaway, the swath is 600-800 feet wide.

While key findings are in dispute, they're of sufficient gravity to have gained the attention of the International Joint Commission.

Commission officials said they plan to investigate the Huron-Michigan water losses in the early years of a five-year look at policies governing lake levels. The $14.6 million study will start this spring if the U.S. and Canadian governments come up with the money.