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November 13, 2006: Last day for public input on the Coast Guard Firing on the Great LakesSubmit your comments to http:www.uscgd9safetyzones.com or find out more at http:www.CitizensForLakeSafety.org November 10, 1975: A date for observanceThe Edmund Fitzgerald, the large iron-ore tanker sank in Lake Superior about 15 miles northwest of Whitefish Point off the coast of Paradise, Michigan. There are annual ceremonies to honor the sailors and their families on this day. The Grand Traverse Maritime Academy at Northwestern Michigan Community College in Traverse City, the museum at Whitefish Point and the Maritime Sailor's Cathedral in Detroit, are a few of locations for the memorial. This single event has become part of the Great Lakes culture and history and plays a significant role in reminding people of the power and force of the wind and water on this Great Lake. At the Great Lakes Maritime Academy at Northwestern Michigan Community College in Traverse City, Michigan an annual observance is held to honor all maritime men and women lost at sea. The event has taken on its own life. But there were 29 men on board that night and two of these men are remembered today. When the Fitzgerald sank, the Academy lost two of their young men. Tom Bentsen was 23 years old when he died in Lake Superior that night. He was taking time off from the academy to come up through the ranks. This meant working on the Great Lakes ships as an oiler, or engineer's assistant. "He had to do it the hard way,"John Hayes of Traverse City recalls. "He was a cross between James Dean and the Fonz. He was larger than life. He was very proud. When he walked into a room all the girls would all go to him. He played bass guitar. He was supposed to be best man at my wedding, the following week." David Weiss was cadet at the academy from California. Barb Gibson of Traverse City, who attended the memorial, knew him. "He was a member of the same Temple I was. We were in our 20s and just starting out, thinking we could change the world," Gibson says. "His death, brings back our own mortality." People in the Great Lakes region have the weather to remind them how nature easily rules when conditions are right. "Living so close to the Great Lakes, you realize how quickly things can change," Gibson says. She remembers the impact on the community, 31 years ago. "Traverse City was smaller. The Maritime Academy was smaller. It was a small Jewish community here," she says, "they're not going to forget them." November 7, 2006SUPERIOR AGGREGATES SUBMITS NEW AGGREGATE LICENCE APPLICATION AT MICHIPICOTEN HARBOURSuperior Aggregates Company, a subsidiary of American-based Carlo Companies, has submitted a new aggregate licence application, this time for a Category 1 and Category 2 licence, which would allow them to establish quarry below the water table near the shore of Lake Superior. The intended rate of excavation is unlimited tonnes annually. A detailed site plan and reports for the proposed quarry are available for public examination (during business hours) at the Ministry of Natural Resource’s (MNR) Wawa District Office, MNR's Sault Ste. Marie District Office, and at the Township of Michipicoten Office. The public has until November 27, 2006 to submit their concerns and objections regarding the application to SAC and MNR. Individuals wishing to object to the application must do so in writing, with reasons for their objection, and submit their objection to both SAC and the MNR by this date at the following addresses: Superior Aggregates Company Box 3, Michipicoten Harbour Wawa, Ontario P0S 1K0 Attn: B. Staines FAX: 705-856-9783
CCMB has prepared an example generic letter of objection, which can be downloaded at http://www.ccmb.ca/uploads/fileassets/generic_letter_re_SAC_Cat_1_and_2_licence_application_-_draft.doc Individuals wishing to submit comments may want to consider sending them by fax to ensure that your response arives by the deadline. SAC will also be holding a public information session at the Wawa Motor Hotel, in Wawa, Ontario on November 14, 2006, from 4 to 9 pm. Why the new application? SAC was essentially forced to submit a new application once it had been determined that their original estimates of the groudwater table depths at the proposed site were considerably inaccurate. In order to recover the same tonnage they had originally envisioned, SAC had to apply for a new licence category. Details regarding the public consultation process can be found on Ontario Environmental Bill of Rights registry here: http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envregistry/028704ei.htm Please note that the public is also permitted to submit concerns via the Environmental Bill of Rights registry, however, comments submitted in this fashion do not constitute "objections" under the context of the Aggregate Resources Act. As stated in the EBR Notice in the link above, "Comments received through EBR should not be construed as an objection under the Aggregate Resources Act in accordance with section 4.0 – Notification and Consultation Standards of the Provincial Standards 1.0 under the ARA." More information can be obtained at the Citizens Concerned for Michipicoten Bay's website: http://www.ccmb.ca
November 3, 2006Time is fast closing in for public response to the proposed plans of the United States Coast Guard to use the Great Lakes as a practice battleground. November 12, 2006 is the last date that the Coast Guard will accept public input about their plans to start routine target practice on the Great Lakes for national security reasons.
Oct. 19, 2006 The autumn hiker along the 13 miles of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore should be prepared for more than the usual vista of sand, water and sky. The beaches are lined with dead and dying horned grebes, mergansers, cormorants, gulls and loons to a count of over 2600 and rising. It's Type E botulism, and appears to be coming from some of the lake’s invasive species. This has been going on since August, but more pronounced since October 1, 2006. “It appears that we have had an upwelling out in the lake and for some reason there is ample botulism bacteria in the lake sediments that has been released either by the macro-invertebrates (insects) or the mussels," says Ken Hyde, biologist for the National Park. "We are inclined to believe that the invasive zebra mussels are accumulating the botulism, and that the invasive round goby fish are eating them and then becoming sick and dying, and then are easy pickings for all of the fish-eating birds that we are seeing die of the botulism toxin.†Experts are helpless at this point. “There is very little that we can do to influence what the fish-eating birds eat and there is almost nothing that we can do to get ride of the zebra mussels and round gobies who are both firmly entrenched in the Great Lakes,†Hyde says
“We are saddened by the loss of many birds from species that are already experiencing low population numbers,†Hyde said.
== KEN HYDE Of the National Park Service spoke IN SUTTONS BAY ON NOVEMBER 14, AT 7:00 PM AT THE INLAND SEAS EDUCATION CENTER ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ''''Recent Botulism Die-offs in Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes''''''' == Suttons Bay, MI - The Inland Seas Education Association will present a seminar that focuses on the recent outbreak of bird deaths along Lake Michigan at 7pm on Tuesday, Nov. 14th, at the Inland Seas Education Center in Suttons Bay. The program, "Recent Botulism Die-offs in Lake Michigan" will be presented by National Park Service Biologist Ken Hyde. Botulism is a form of food poisoning caused when animals eat the toxin produced by the Clostridium botulism bacteria. Bird die-offs caused by Type E botulism were first reported on Lake Michigan in 1963 and have become common in shoreline locations across the Great Lakes. According to Hyde, outbreaks are often related to turnover of lake bottom sediments containing the botulism-causing bacteria, which are ingested by fish that die and poison birds that eat them. This year has seen a record number of bird die-offs resulting from Type E botulism. Officials at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore have estimated that 2600 birds have been lost to this bacterial toxin since August. The outbreak has primarily impacted fish-eating birds, such as gulls, cormorants, horned grebes, mergansers, and common loons. Hyde has hypothesized that a contributing factor to this summer's outbreak is the concentration of botulism by the zebra mussels and round gobies, two invasive species to the Great Lakes. Zebra mussels filter large quantities of water and concentrate the botulism. The mussels in turn are eaten by round gobies, which are then eaten by the affected birds. The Inland Seas Education Association is a non-profit organization based in Suttons Bay, Michigan, dedicated to science education on the Great Lakes. The shipboard and shore-side education programs are designed to inspire young people's interest in science and to provide for the long-term stewardship of the Great Lakes. For further information contact the Inland Seas Education Association at (231) 271-3077 or on the Web at www.schoolship.org. Inland Seas Education Association P. O. Box 218, Suttons Bay, MI 49682 The Traverse City Record Eagle covered the event: http://www.record-eagle.com/2006/nov/18bird.htm |
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