Second Week of Spring Schoolship

Underway in light air and fog patches, May 15, 2009

The second week of spring Schoolship Programs has quickly passed by. We had school classes from Lewiston, Bellaire (2), Reuther (Rochester -2), Smith (Dearborn), Platte River, Johannesburg, and Northwest (Jackson). Manitou also had a busy week with classes from Lewiston, Traverse City East, Gaylord St. Mary's, Reuther (Rochester), Traverse City Career Tech Center AgriScience, Smith (Dearborn), Central Lake, Lakeland, and Traverse City Central Grade School.

Aboard Inland Seas our trawl catches consisted of rock bass, round goby, native crayfish, a frog (first ever!), brook stickleback and a rainbow smelt. Trawl catches have been light despite seeing many fish in the water column on the sounder.

The surface water temperature averaged 43 degrees F this week, with bottom water 0 - 1 degree colder. The average secchi disk reading was 18 meters, with a range of 14 m to 20 m, although the disk was often visible sitting on the lake bottom, so these values are conservative.

The zooplankton community consists mainly of calanoid and cyclopoid copepods, many with egg sacs and lots of red lipid visible in their bodies.

Bringing the trawl aboard, 5-15-09 pm.