Pandora's Locks' Author To Speak at ISEA

Join us for the first Inland Seas Great Lakes Seminar of the Fall 2009 series. Jeff Alexander, author of Pandora's Locks: the Opening of the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Seaway, will speak at Inland Seas Education Center Tuesday, October 13 at 7:00 pm. This seminar is free and open to the public.

Invasive species are the biggest threat to the Great Lakes ecosystem to date. Alexander chronicles the implications of invasive species since the opening of the Welland Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Threats and challenges to water quality, public health, power generation, fisheries, recreation, shorelines and wetlands, marine life, birds, mammals, and more are part of the chronicle. Jeff Alexander is an award winning author and former environmental journalist. He covered Great Lakes issues for the past 20 years for several Michigan newspapers, most recently for The Muskegon Chronicle. He currently works for the National Wildlife Federation.

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.