Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard
Pictured Rocks Rescue
An aircrew from U.S. Coast Guard Station Traverse City, Michigan, rescues a kayaker who was stranded on a cliff at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on September 13, 2016.
Dramatic rescue at Pictured Rocks
Three paddlers were rescued at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Tuesday after their kayaks capsized in 4- to 6-foot waves.
The trio left Sand Point at 10:30 a.m. and planned to reach Mosquito Beach, a popular paddling destination, by evening. Less than two hours later, the weather turned.
“After floating in the water for over four hours, the first kayaker made it to land at Sand Point where he was able to contact park rangers,” the U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release. “He said that one of his friends was on the rocks along the cliff face, and the other friend was last seen in the water, clinging to his kayak and floating away from shore.”
A Coast Guard helicopter, dispatched from Traverse City, Michigan, plucked the second kayaker from the cliffs. (See the video here.) Meanwhile, a National Park Service rescue boat and Coast Guard response boat from Marquette searched the roiling waters for the third paddler.
After seven hours of swimming, that third paddler reached the shore and was able to call for help. Fortunately, he was suffering from only mild hypothermia.
The U.S. Coast Guard says the kayakers’ cold-water gear and life jackets kept the trio alive during the ordeal. Without proper wetsuits, they likely would have succumbed to hypothermia. And without life jackets, they might have quickly drowned in those conditions.
Pictured Rocks is one of the Lake’s most glorious paddling spots, but it’s never to be taken lightly. If bad weather rolls in, there are few safe landings and many miles of sheer cliffs between them. Always be prepared for the worst, as these paddlers were, with the proper safety equipment.
Blue-green algae reported on Lake Superior
Danielle Kaeding, reporting for Wisconsin Public Radio:
The National Park Service has once again spotted blue-green algae on the shores of Lake Superior near the Apostle Islands, and flooding from July’s storms may have played a role.
Brenda Moraska Lafrancois, regional aquatic ecologist with the National Park Service, spied the pollen-like scum floating on the shore while swimming one day near Meyers Beach in late August. She said the blue-green algae was last spotted near the Apostle Islands sea caves four years ago.
Algal blooms are rare on Lake Superior. The last notable one was in 2012, the result of warm water combining with that summer’s 500-year storm.
Summer storms are also partly to blame for reduced wild rice harvests this year, Danielle reports in a separate story.
The Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa says in its latest newsletter:
Marvin Defoe reports this year's wild rice crop is near nil. After scouting the area and monitoring the condition of the crop, it has been determined the conditions were not favorable for a harvestable crop.
"As a result of this summer's rain and floods in the region, the growing of rice had it very difficult," said Defoe recently.
"For example, we travelled to Chippewa Lake where we have gathered rice for years and Mark Duffy got 15 grains of rice. The water level on this lake was seven feet higher than normal, which is unbelievable," said Defoe.
Lake Name vs. Name Lake
Why do some bodies of water get the Lake Name nomenclature (like Lake Superior), while others have the Name Lake format (like Siskiwit Lake on Isle Royale)?
A new analysis of lake names in the United States found a few potential explanations. For the word nerds among us, it’s a fun read. Researchers Beatrix E. Beisner and Cayelan C. Carey say that:
- The influences of colonization and immigration may help to explain the split. For example, the Southeast, colonized by the Spanish and French, reflects the grammatical conventions of those languages – Lac Nom, Lago Nombre, Lake Name – while British colonists used the Name Lake tradition of England in areas like the Northeast. “As a melting pot of cultures, the U.S.A. is a classic case of linguistic mélange, evident in the way its people have come to refer to its waterbodies,” they write. The Lake Superior states use Name Lake an overwhelming majority of the time.
- The larger a lake’s surface area, the more likely it is to be called Lake Name. The Great Lakes, of course, are the ultimate example.
Emerald ash borers continue to spread: The non-native beetles, which have killed tens of millions of ash trees in North America, have been found in Duluth’s Hartley Park, reports the News Tribune. St. Louis County has expanded its wood quarantine. Don’t move firewood; that’s likely how the beetles have spread so quickly to new areas.
... but invasive mussels have not: For MLive, Garret Ellison finds out why zebra and quagga mussels haven’t spread to Lake Superior. (We can thank the cold water, for one.)
Help solve a mystery: A youngster found a little hand-carved sailboat near the Minnesota-Ontario border, writes TBNewsWatch. It has a rock for a keel and birch bark for sails. Do you know where it came from?
Adopt-a-Beach weekend: Many towns on the Lake are hosting beach cleanups this weekend with the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Find one near you.
Video: Sunrise at the Duluth piers, by Dennis O’Hara.