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Because of low water levels on Lake Superior, there’s not enough water to accommodate the passenger vessel Wenonah at Isle Royale National Park.

The 65-foot Wenonah, which normally runs between Grand Portage, Minnesota, and Isle Royale, Michigan, needs 6 feet of water to safely navigate into Isle Royale’s Hat Point Marina.

“Last year, we had just over 7 feet. This year, there’s 5 feet to 5-1/2” at Isle Royale, says Don Szczech, operations manager for Grand Portage-Isle Royale Transportation Line, the Wenonah’s owner and operator. “Last year, we were right on the edge – the water level was at the absolute minimum. ... There was one shoal where we had a foot of clearance.”

Although the Wenonah will not be offering scenic cruises to Isle Royale this season, the company’s smaller Voyageur II, with a 4-foot draft, is providing service to the national park. But that means far fewer people on cruises than in a normal year.

Using the 60-foot Voyageur II with its smaller capacity will mean taking 2,500 to 2,700 people to Isle Royale this season, Don says, compared with 4,500 people in a normal year. Voyageur II is allowed to take only 48 people, whereas the Wenonah can handle 149 passengers.

Don says that the Grand Portage-Isle Royale Transportation Line will be offering scenic cruises on the Wenonah out of Grand Marais, Minnesota, which is something different for the company. Those cruises will run Wednesday through Saturday (with two trips a day) between the Fourth of July and Labor Day.

Lake Superior’s level was expected to be at 600.2 feet on June 15, which is up 2 inches from May 15, but is still 14 inches lower than a year ago, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

That lake level is 21 inches below the long-term monthly average for June, but hasn’t yet set a new record low, says the Corps. The lake in mid-June was still believed to be about 3 inches above the 1926 record low.

During the next few months, Lake Superior will remain well below its water level of a year ago, the Corps predicted, while the levels of the remaining lakes are expected to be similar or slightly below last year’s levels.

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