Paul Hayden / Lake Superior Magazine
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Lake monitoring system seeks sustainable future
A coastal hazard monitoring system in Marquette, Munising and Grand Marais, Michigan, is trying to drum up new funding. According to Alissa Pietila from WLUC:
Three monitoring buoys placed offshore from each city generate timely data on wind speed and direction, wave height, and air and water temperature. The goal is to better predict conditions and ensure greater safety for lake users. Grants supported the project’s launch and early operation, but scientists are concerned about covering operation and equipment maintenance costs over a longer term.
The weather information generated is useful for everyone on that stretch of lakeshore, but especially so for kayakers planning outings at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Another group of paddlers there needed a rescue by the U.S. Coast Guard last week in rough late-season conditions on the Lake.
What happens to lake trout that survive sea lamprey attacks?
Michigan State Ph.D. candidate Tyler Firkus wants to find out, writes Marie Zhuikov for Wisconsin Sea Grant:
In an effort to get a better handle on population stressors so that more accurate fishing quotas can be set, fishery managers are looking at a variety of factors that might stress this important population. One of those things are attacks by sea lamprey – the eely vampire of the fisheries world.
Although the number of lake trout deaths by lamprey rank behind those from commercial fishing, natural causes and angling, it is estimated that more than 50 percent of lake trout attacked by lamprey survive. It’s long been assumed that lamprey-attack survivors suffer from impaired growth and reproduction rates, but this has never been studied in the lab.
Tyler is conducting his research at the Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility in Red Cliff, Wisconsin, a Sea Grant partner.
Local boy Bob Dylan win Nobel Prize
Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, born in Duluth and raised on Minnesota’s Iron Range, won the Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition,” said the Swedish Academy, which chooses the literature winners.
The New York Times has more on the selection:
Mr. Dylan, 75, is the first musician to win the award, and his selection on Thursday is perhaps the most radical choice in a history stretching back to 1901. In choosing a popular musician for the literary world’s highest honor, the Swedish Academy, which awards the prize, dramatically redefined the boundaries of literature, setting off a debate about whether song lyrics have the same artistic value as poetry or novels.
Coincidentally, on Saturday night Duluth will celebrate the local Dylan-themed radio show “Highway 61 Revisited.” For 25 years host John Bushey has dissected Bob’s music and influence. Event organizers say they’ll add the Nobel Prize news to the celebration, too.
+ From the Duluth News Tribune: In Hibbing, an awkward embrace for its Nobel Prize-winning son.
St. Lawrence Seaway yearly shipping numbers down slightly over 2015: But, officials noted in a press release about September’s totals, “Notable increases were reflected in the export of wheat, corn and soybeans from the U.S. Ports of Duluth, Milwaukee and Toledo during the month of September.”
What’s the best thing about Thunder Bay? The CBC put that question to Mayor Keith Hobbs, MP Patty Hajdu and Amanda Bay, president of the local young professionals group. (Their answers include the Terry Fox Monument, a favorite of our readers, too.)
More Thunder Bay tidbits: Local farmers enjoyed an exceptionally long growing season – 141 frost-free days this year, reports TBNewsWatch. The average is about 100. And last Friday, hometown boy Paul Shaffer returned for a three-hour concert. It was the “Letterman” legend’s first show in town since the city named a street after him more than a decade ago.
Photos of the Week: Regular contributor Paul Sundberg’s latest shots feature the fall colors on the Minnesota shore.
Drone video: Minnesota’s Manitou River Falls plunging into Lake Superior. The land around the falls is privately owned, so most folks can only view it from the air or water.