ISEA Seminar on Avian Botulism Tuesday Evening

Inland Seas Education Association is excited to offer a seminar focusing on the avian botulism monitoring program at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Dan Ray, the Project Lead, will give an overview of botulism in the Great Lakes, as well as a bird’s eye view of the monitoring activity conduced in 2012.

Where:
The Inland Seas Education Center
100 Dame St. Suttons Bay
When:
Tuesday February 12th at 7:00 pm

Free and open to the public
Please contact 231-271-3077 with any questions

Former Schoolship Intern Emily Tyner to Present Seminar on Botulism

What’s Happening in the Lake? Food Web and Botulism Dynamics in Northern Lake Michigan

Suttons Bay, MI – Emily Tyner of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will present a public seminar on botulism in northern Lake Michigan. She will be focusing on recent changes in food web structure and dissolved oxygen dynamics. The program will be held on Monday October 10 at 7 pm at the Inland Seas Education Center in Suttons Bay. This seminar is free and open to the public.

The Great Lakes ecosystem has been subject to massive changes in recent years. The invasive zebra and quagga mussels have greatly altered the food web and concentrated nutrients on the lake bottom while clearing the water column of phytoplankton. This has caused a decrease in populations of native invertebrates and fish. The arrival of the round goby has also created havoc on the lake bottom. The combination of invasive mussels and gobies has resulted in an increase of botulism deaths to native fish and water birds. Emily Tyner’s research at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is attempting to determine the complex relationships within the nearshore food web and to find ways to mitigate fish and bird deaths from botulism.

Emily Tyner, a native of Ann Arbor, began her career interest in the Great Lakes as a summer intern with the Inland Seas Education Association. She is now employed by the National Park Service and is working on her Masters Degree at the University of Wisconsin Great Lakes Water Institute in Milwaukee.

You can see a new video featuring Emily Tyner and her work (and the Schoolship!) by clicking here.

Round goby, quagga mussels and algae...a sometimes deadly combination that results in botulism deaths of water birds and native fishes.

Past Schoolship Students/Interns - Where are they now?

Well, here are two of them, hard at work yesterday (note the smiles!).  They are aboard the US Geological Survey research vessel Dragonfly at Leland Harbor, just before departing for a day of sampling and underwater photography related to the botulism problem in this area.  Emma Kelly (left) is a former Young Women in Science participant (and Capt. Tom's daughter) and Emily Tyner (right) is a former ISEA student and summer intern.  Emma is currently enrolled at U. of Michigan in the Program in the Environment and Emily is in graduate school at U. Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Both are summer employees of the National Park Service.  Emily credits ISEA with determining her career path.  Emma blames it on her dad. 

Ecological History of the Great Lakes

ISEA Executive Director Tom Kelly gives keynote address at Freshwater Summit in Traverse City...read the article in the Traverse City Record Eagle http://www.record-eagle.com/archivesearch/local_story_275233038.html

Seminar This Evening to Address Botulism in Lake Michigan

Botulism - killed bird on shore of Lake Erie

See the Fox 33 News Report & Interview with Chris Crissman: http://www.fox33.com/category/story/?id=148947

Come to the Inland Seas Education Center this evening at 7 pm to hear Ken Hyde of the National Park Service present a program on Lake Michigan botulism and bird die-offs. For full details click here: http://www.record-eagle.com/archivesearch/local_story_041095541.html

Ice cover report: The small bays within in Grand Traverse Bay remain ice covered (Northport, Omena, Bowers), but most of the ice in the West Arm has melted/blown out during the past several days of warm weather and strong winds. The last time GT Bay froze over was in 2003 and before that, 1996.
-Tom K.

Using Advanced Technology to Understand Our Bay

Public Seminar on Aquatic Monitoring Technology in the Grand Traverse Bay Region

Suttons Bay, MI – The Inland Seas Education Association will present a seminar that focuses on aquatic monitoring technology at 7pm on Wednesday, January 14th, at the Inland Seas Education Center in Suttons Bay. The program, “Aquatic Monitoring Technology in the Grand Traverse Bay Region” will be presented by Hans Van Sumeren.

In 2005, the University of Michigan’s Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory introduced the Grand Traverse Bay Observing System as part of a regional collaboration aimed at collecting and compiling real-time oceanographic and meteorological data. In 2007 and 2008, the National Park Service used an underwater Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) to determine the bottom conditions in Lake Michigan that seemed to harbor the botulism toxin responsible for thousands of bird deaths in 2007 alone. Van Sumeren will discuss technologies such as these that help monitor the health of Grand Traverse Bay and help researchers better understand conditions in Lake Michigan.

Hans Van Sumeren is the Director of the Great Lakes Water Studies Institute at Northwestern Michigan College. He has worked across the Great Lakes, Alaska, and the US coastal oceans on a wide variety of programs involving coastal processes, environmental and habitat monitoring, shipwreck investigations, ship hydrodynamics, and remote sensing. Van Sumeren was previously at the University of Michigan’s Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories where he served at various research, education, outreach, and administrative positions from 1991 through July 2008. He holds a BSE and a MSE in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan and specialized in Marine Environmental Engineering.

The Inland Seas Education Association is a non-profit organization based in Suttons Bay, Michigan, dedicated to science education on the Great Lakes. Its shipboard and shore-side education programs are designed to inspire young people’s interest in science and to provide for the long-term stewardship of the Great Lakes. For further information contact the Inland Seas Education Association at (231) 271-3077 or on the web at www.schoolship.org.