Michigan Sea Grant Extension Educators are stationed throughout the state, keeping ahead of water-related issues along our Great Lakes coasts. This page features news from Dan O’Keefe, who covers the southwest district of the state.
The information gathered here focuses on news specific and relevant to west Michigan residents, decision-makers and visitors.
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News and Updates
Water Levels 101 – April 8
Record low Lake Michigan water levels are raising many questions. A recent Great Lakes Water Levels 101 program in Traverse City brought interested citizens together with regulatory agencies, scientists, and educators to discuss causes and implications of low water. Now a similar meeting is being offered in Ottawa County for the evening of April 8.
See: Full Details and Registration (PDF)
NOAA Announces Free “BookletCharts” for Boaters
One of NOAA’s handiest navigation products, especially for recreational boaters, has been Coast Survey’s experimental BookletCharts — nautical charts that are easy to download and print from home computers. Coast Survey has now moved the BookletCharts from experimental stage into official production.
Nearly 1,000 newly updated BookletCharts are available free on the Web. NOAA’s new official BookletCharts cover the 95,000 miles of U.S. and Great Lakes coastline. The BookletCharts contain most of the information found on NOAA’s full-scale nautical charts, but it is presented as reduced-scale.
Since the Booklet Charts are easy to access from the Web, easy to print, and easy to carry in a pocket, NOAA officials hope that tens of millions of recreational boaters who may not normally use charts will use these.
See: Great Lakes BookletCharts
Charter Captains Can Now Access Training Videos Online
Presentations on safe fish handling for the Catch & Cook program, health issues that impact Coast Guard license renewal, and Drug & Alcohol Program compliance are now available online at our new Michigan Charter Boat Industry Video Playlist.
New Salmon Stocking Video From Ludington Workshop
On January 12, fisheries scientists and managers met with Lake Michigan anglers at the Ludington Regional Fisheries Workshop. Jay Wesley of MDNR discussed the decision to reduce Chinook salmon stocking by 50 percent in Lake Michigan for 2013 and gave reasons for reductions at each stocking site in Michigan waters.
Great Lakes Conference – March 5
Michigan State University will host a Great Lakes Conference as part of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Week. The conference will be held from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 5 at the Kellogg Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing.
Though the conference is free and open to the public, advanced registration is required.
See: Agenda and online registration
Correction
The date for the Great Lakes Conference at MSU given in the Winter 2013 edition of Fish Notes was incorrectly given as March 13.
