Lakes Love Cold: Frigid temperatures do have a silver lining, especially if it’s an ice-covered one, according to a story by Kirsti Marohn for MPR News. “Experts say bitterly cold weather actually can have positive impacts on lakes from curbing the growth of harmful algae to reducing water loss,” Kirsti reports. For Lake Superior, that means less water lost to evaporation if more of the Lake is frozen. It also aids native fish species and can hamper spread of non-native species like zebra mussels, which prefer shallow waters and can be frozen out of vigorous reproduction. Another good thing about cold weather? Stunning photos like this one of Minnesota’s North Shore by Jan Swart or the lovely chilly video posted by Visit Cook County (looks beautiful and catch the sound of that ripping wind).
Hide 'n' Go Lake: While we were under the bone-chilling Polar Vortex, Lake Superior was contending with its own chilly cloud covering on Jan. 30 (Wednesday) this week, as shown in this satellite image from the NOAA MODIS imagery, processed at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service out of Marquette put out a good graphic about the warning signs of hypothermia (many of which, to this aging editor, remind me of the signs of becoming an elder). Hypothermia, of course, is no chuckling matter – heed these warning signs when you’re outside, no matter your age!
A Stout Port: The Duluth-Superior port handled 35.9 million short tons of cargo during the 2018 shipping season, with more than half of that – 21.5 million short tons – being iron ore. “Iron ore cargoes were up 9 percent year-over-year (over last year), outpacing the five-year average by 30-plus percent,” the Duluth Seaway Port Authority’s executive director, Deb DeLuca, noted in a press release this week. (Short tons, by the by, are 2,000 pounds while a long ton is 2,240 pounds.) The release also noted: “International shipping through the St. Lawrence Seaway, in and out of the Great Lakes, had its best year in more than a decade – posting a 7 percent increase over the previous season and the most since 2007. Grain exports alone posted a 20 percent year-over-year increase, virtually mirroring increased grain traffic through the Port of Duluth-Superior in 2018.”
Just One More: Not that we needed a final view of beautifully bitter cold, but we’ve been looking for an excuse to use this fantastic shot from early January, a week or so before the closing of the Soo Locks. Carmen Paris of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers captured this image showing the Corps’ Soo Area Office-based tug Owen M. Frederick breaking ice to the upper approach of the Poe Lock while the 1,000-footer MV Walter J. McCarthy Jr. waited to lock downbound.
Island to Island: Now that the U.S. government is back in business (for awhile, at least) plans are back under way to transfer wolves from Michipicoten Island in Ontario to Isle Royale in Michigan, reports The Canadian Press in a story picked up by SooToday. When the last of the caribou on Michipicoten were transported to the Slate Islands early in 2018, that took away the largest prey for the wolves that had migrated to the isle in far eastern Lake Superior. The wolves were the cause for the transfer; they were eliminating the caribou population on the island. Moose on Isle Royale likely will prove to be far tougher to bring down, but an unchecked moose population was one reason the National Park Service decided to replace the wolf population on Isle Royale. Only two wolves remained on Isle Royale, which has hosted multiple packs with as many as 50 wolves total. A small pack of as many as six wolves will be transferred from Michipicoten Island to Isle Royale. “We need to get these wolves off the island, otherwise they'll die,” Aaron Bumstead, director of lands and economic development with Michipicoten First Nation, told The Canadian Press. Michipicoten First Nation is coordinating the move with the province’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. Other wolves have already been moved from mainland Minnesota to Isle Royale (like this one in the photo) and others may also be transferred from Ontario, Wisconsin or Minnesota.
Bringing It Back: Amazing meals like this – plus one of the best slices of pie on the Lake – will have to be on hold for about a month after a stove fire at the Rustic Inn Café & Gifts at Castle Danger in Minnesota on Sunday. The Rustic is a popular stop for locals and visitors and has been family owned for 30 years. The fire, perhaps started by a gas leak, was spotted when employees arrived for work early Sunday. “Two employees happened to come in five minutes early,” says Beth Sullivan, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Jim. “They were right on top of it.” They called 911 and the fire was soon out, but the damage will close the restaurant for four to six weeks. No one was injured in the fire. “It’s mainly cleanup,” Sullivan noted. “We’re going to need a whole new ceiling in the kitchen.” Asked if they had a funding site where help might be donated, Sullivan said, “Heavens no! There’s a lot of other people who could use money.” They will, however, gladly welcome patrons back to their tables when the doors open once again. Patrons, apparently, will be eager to return. A post about the fire on the Rustic’s Facebook page drew dozens of supportive comments, such as: “Heard the sirens and saw the emergency vehicles. So sorry to learn that they were en route to you! The raspberry cream pie I purchased the night before was fantastic … and I’ll patiently wait for the next one. Good luck, Beth and crew” and “Will always be there for your great meals whenever we can. Just do what you do best. Your customers come from far and near and will always return. Can’t wait for the next pies … the best on the Whole North Shore.”
Checking on Our Older Sister: Popular Science recently posted a story by Marlene Cimons of Nexus Media about the effects of rising temperatures and pollution on Lake Baikal, the international “sister” to Lake Superior located in Siberia. As many of you likely know, Lake Baikal holds the most fresh water in the world – more than 6 quadrillion gallons compared to Lake Superior’s 3 quadrillion gallons. However, in surface area, it’s less than half the size of Lake Superior, covering only 12,248 sq. mi. compared to the 31,700 sq. mi. of Lake Superior. Lake Baikal, whose name means “nature lake” in Mongolian, according to Marlene, cuts a deep slice into the Earth, which is where all that water resides. Baikal’s average depth is 2,442 feet (Lake Superior’s average is about 483 feet) and its maximum depth plunges 5,387 feet, or
about a mile. Lake Superior’s deepest point, identified as north of Munising, Michigan, is around 1,300 (the Large Lakes Observatory at the University of Minnesota Duluth logged it as 1,276 a few years back, but the official is still 1,332). Lake Baikal at 20 million years and counting is also about two times older than our Big Lake youngster. The changes in temperature and pollution may be putting Lake Baikal’s unique wildlife and fishery population at risk, Marlene reports, including the freshwater Nerpa seal found only on Baikal’s shores (and cute as a button, as you see here). Likely because of the size difference, Lake Baikal averages 100 percent ice cover in winter, while Lake Superior averages 12 to 24 percent in an average winter (whatever that is!), according to Marianne V. Moore, a Baikal researcher and blogger who spoke at Michigan Technological University in 2013. As this NOAA graphic from Thursday (Jan. 31) shows, despite the finger-snapping cold, the Big Lake remains mainly ice free. Lake Baikal, meanwhile, will host its annual Baikal Ice Marathon, on March 2, a “run on the world’s only marathon ice course laid between opposite shores of the planet’s deepest lake,” as organizers note.
Photo & graphic credits: Jan Swart; Visit Cook County; NOAA MODIS; Duluth Seaway Port Authority; Carmen Paris / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Jim Peaco / National Park Service; Rustic Inn Café; Daniel Woźniczka / Wikimedia Commons; Sergey Gabdurakhmanov / Flickr; NOAA