This is a day at port at the town of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. About 1/2 of the teachers did a late night research station for late night sampling. I didn't. I slept to catch up. There was lightning and rain last night and the teachers out there said that it was hard to separate the lake from the sky in the dark. That would have been cool to experience, but there were also too many hands on deck and lots of standing around watching. I am glad that I slept. There were more teachers trying to help than help was needed.
Manitowoc is the home of Manitowoc Ice machine company that also makes other objects, like cranes. There is also a Anheser Busch distribution of grain facility. It only employs 5-6 people, as most of the operations are automated. Many of the silos are used to store grain for at home brewers.
Manitowoc is also the town that is connected with Ludington, MI via the SS Badger Ferry. It is also home to where a piece of Sputnik IV crashed into 8th street. They have a festival each year called Sputnikfest.
I forgot to pack enough t-shirts. Therefore I looked up a Saint Vincent DePaul shop in Manitowoc and found 2 Wisconsin shirts. One is a red Rose Bowl t-shirt. The other is a Manitowoc Pirate Orchestra t-shirt.
Stepping off of the ship first thing this morning I overheard a conversation between one of the Lake Guardian's crew say to a local recycling truck driver, "I get off @ about 4 pm and will be looking for a bar. Not one of those hipster, fluffy bulls*** bars. One with a pool table,. Hopefully with some ladies that I can oogle with my eyes." No comment on my part, just something for me to remember I guess.
Jessica (from the Museum of Science and Industry) talked about the Shedd Aquarium diving and how most are volunteers, all except shark tank divers. This makes me curious about where the Shedd money goes.
Manitowoc also built many of the submarines (60+) for US efforts in World War II in the 1940's. This is also the permanent home of the USS Cobia. There is a maritime museum we visited, participated in PD at, and listened to speakers.
The first presentation was by an underwater archeologist. Here were the main points...
- The Edmund Fitzgerald was a Wisconsin Ship with a home port of Milwaukee; named for a Milwaukee banker. It went down in Canadian waters.
- There are 727 shipwrecks in Wisconsin waterways and only 154 have been located.
- Wisconsin boasts more wrecks than any other state.
- Burger Boat in Manitowoc still makes luxury yachts to this day.
Why are there so many wrecks in Wisconsin?
- Chicago and Milwaukee are on the path of grain trade. Lake Michigan has more traffic than Lake Superior.
- Wisconsin/Michigan trains used to dump there loads into boats to bypass Chicago via a boat across Lake Michigan. However, once the Interstate Highway system was established, trucks replaced these cargo ships.
Random Resources presented at the Museum:
- Huge canvas map of the Great Lakes available from Michigan Tech's Joan Chatty
- boatnerd.com and marinetraffic app allow people to follow boats.
We completed a scale drawing of a boat underwater. This would be hard to do in real life underwater. Cool math/scale application.
The most interesting presentation at the maritime museum involved "Commericial Fishing on the Great Lakes; Past and Present" by Titus Seilheimer. Here were his key points...
- Phosphorus is the fertilizer of the lake, excess P and quagga mussels lead to cladophora mats.
- He showed a "Simplified Food Web of the Northern Atlantic", super complex.
- When cladophora is removed from the beach it is taken to a dump or composted.
- Alewife used to be caught and turned into pet food.
- DNR manages fishery and quotas for commercial takes on the lake.
After this presentation on the fisheries we did 3 stations outside...
- First station featured the use of a $8,000 water column analyzer (Hydrolab) shown by Kristin TePas. I need to sign up for this in a later email.
- Second station was sampling at Manitowoc beach with Titus Seilheimer. We used large kick nets to collect lots of Goby and a couple of shiners. I'd need to get a scientific sampling permit from the DNR to be able to use this type of equipment out in nature.
- Remote operating vehicle demonstration that failed; it is a Wisconsin state rental.
Jessica from Science and Industry shared U-boat stories as we went through the USS Cobia.
Michelle from Door County Wisconsin described white fish boils.
The tour of the USS Cobia included the following highlights
- Oldest working radar in the US.
- Concept of "hot bunking" sharing beds of shift workers
- Intricate toilet flushing steps/valves/knobs
- Cobia's base port was Perth, Australia and sunk 14 Japanese ships in WWII.
- Made in New York
We had dinner at Capone's where I had a large perch basket. After dinner, we went for a walk to see Sputnik 4 crash site on 8th St. In addition to Sputnikfest they also have Subfest. Walking through town was Jedd Freel, Mike, Liz, and John Thomas. On this walk, I was taught that when getting a two scoop ice cone, always ask that the server surprise you. Thank you, Jed Freel.
Day 4: July 15, 2015
We left Manitowoc very early this morning so that we could do three stations on our way across the lake to Frankfort, MI. At the first station it was my job to do the secchi disk reading which helps determine water clarity, chlorophyll levels, and overall turbidity. Since the arrival of zebra and quagga mussels, Lake Michigan secchi disk readings have shown an increase water transparency. In order to do the secchi disk, you drop the disk down and see how deep it goes before you can't see it anymore. Then you bring it up until you can see it. Finally you drop it again until you can't see it again.
This first station today was in the nearshore waters off of Manitowoc. The Ponar grab was very difficult because of the sandy and rocky bottom. This made other collections here difficult. We couldn't collect any cores here either. Therefore, the phosphorus cycling experiments with quagga mussels are on hold. As a result, we are running an experiment by comparing quagga mussel respiration rates vs. sediment controls using a dissolved oxygen probe.
I spent a huge chunk of this day working in the lab to help Zac Driscoll with the P cycling experiments. Here are the steps to do this...
We left Manitowoc very early this morning so that we could do three stations on our way across the lake to Frankfort, MI. At the first station it was my job to do the secchi disk reading which helps determine water clarity, chlorophyll levels, and overall turbidity. Since the arrival of zebra and quagga mussels, Lake Michigan secchi disk readings have shown an increase water transparency. In order to do the secchi disk, you drop the disk down and see how deep it goes before you can't see it anymore. Then you bring it up until you can see it. Finally you drop it again until you can't see it again.
This first station today was in the nearshore waters off of Manitowoc. The Ponar grab was very difficult because of the sandy and rocky bottom. This made other collections here difficult. We couldn't collect any cores here either. Therefore, the phosphorus cycling experiments with quagga mussels are on hold. As a result, we are running an experiment by comparing quagga mussel respiration rates vs. sediment controls using a dissolved oxygen probe.
I spent a huge chunk of this day working in the lab to help Zac Driscoll with the P cycling experiments. Here are the steps to do this...
- Extract sample of water from above the sediment core.
- Run extracted water through a filter to get rid of particulate phosphorus (filter paper kept sealed in petri dish).
- Spike the filtered water with a 4:1 antimony molybdenum + ascorbic acid as a means of fluorescing the phosphates.
- The spiked solution is then placed in a spectrophotometer to get absorbance.
- Absorbance is converted into concentration using an excell spreadsheet for a standard curve. See quagga mussels, phosphorus, and Lake Michigan slideshow. here is another slideshow specific on Soluble Dissolved phosphorus.
Dr. Hoellein of the microplastics research group continues to remind us that there is still lots to learn about microplastics and Lake Michigan. He says, "I don't know." a lot. This is healthy and good for him. It means there's work to do. They are finding some microplastics. However, staring through a microscope to categorize debris is difficult work to do on a boat.
In my work out on the fishtail, a found a chunk of coal from the bottom of the Lake and with tons of quagga mussels and cladophora.
In the evening in the galley, the captain of the boat had a snack with a couple of teachers. He has been a Captain of 45 years, all on the Great Lakes. He saluted the Edmund Fitzgerald on its last ride. He has carried iron, stone, coal, salt, limestone and marble. He ran Escanaba to Chicago. He also ran salt from Cleveland to Montreal and then marble chips down from Montreal to Chicago.
Day 5: 7/16/2015
We woke up in Frankfort, MI. Ate breakfast on the boat and packed a lunch to eat at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We had a park ranger guided tour at Glen Haven area owned by DH Day who was a future looking in having a golf course, fruit orchards, and a blacksmith shop. The ranger discussed many things we were already very aware of. One funny point came when I asked about pirates on Lake Michigan. He responded how there haven't been pirates, which contradicted another fact from a curriculum project we were exposed to earlier in the week. Pirates have been on the Great Lakes. See this Michigan Radio story.
We then drove to Pierce Stocking trail and hiked to a nice overlook, then drive back to Empire, MI. While in Empire I walked to the visitor's center and then ran down to the beach to go for a swim. It was refreshingly fantastic. The public beach in Empire was much improved from what I remember as a kid vacationing with my family. Maybe because it was summer and we usually visited in the winter to avoid crowds.
After Empire, we bused to Northstar Organic Cherry Orchard south of Empire. The owners of the farm gave us an overview of their operations. To them, organic means nothing synthetically derived can be used and then adhere to the rules for organic certification. They use a clay/aluminum /diatomaceous earth mix that is sprayed to stop some bugs from eating the cherries. They also use bio-controls that are bugs that eat the larvae of other bugs that pose a threat to the cherries. They can't use straight manure and pay a premium for a compost that has other nutrients mixed in. For cherries in 2015, this year hasn't been good for them. A late frost destroyed a significant portion of their crop. Michigan is the top tart cherry producing state (about 90% of the nations tart cherries). Many of these tart cherries are used as Maraschino cherries which are yellow cherries bleached, then sweetened, and then red dye is added.
We had evening dinner on the boat and then ice cream back in the town of Frankfort. On the pier at Frankfort, I was able to jump off three times. Two on the Lake Michigan cold side and one on the harbor side, much warmer. We saw lots of round goby and a couple very large fish come up to feed.
Jed, Mike and I went on a dessert binge in Frankfort, getting ice cream in every ice cream shop. I got free fudge scraps for asking at Kilwin's.
In the evening in the galley, the captain of the boat had a snack with a couple of teachers. He has been a Captain of 45 years, all on the Great Lakes. He saluted the Edmund Fitzgerald on its last ride. He has carried iron, stone, coal, salt, limestone and marble. He ran Escanaba to Chicago. He also ran salt from Cleveland to Montreal and then marble chips down from Montreal to Chicago.
Day 5: 7/16/2015
We woke up in Frankfort, MI. Ate breakfast on the boat and packed a lunch to eat at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We had a park ranger guided tour at Glen Haven area owned by DH Day who was a future looking in having a golf course, fruit orchards, and a blacksmith shop. The ranger discussed many things we were already very aware of. One funny point came when I asked about pirates on Lake Michigan. He responded how there haven't been pirates, which contradicted another fact from a curriculum project we were exposed to earlier in the week. Pirates have been on the Great Lakes. See this Michigan Radio story.
We then drove to Pierce Stocking trail and hiked to a nice overlook, then drive back to Empire, MI. While in Empire I walked to the visitor's center and then ran down to the beach to go for a swim. It was refreshingly fantastic. The public beach in Empire was much improved from what I remember as a kid vacationing with my family. Maybe because it was summer and we usually visited in the winter to avoid crowds.
After Empire, we bused to Northstar Organic Cherry Orchard south of Empire. The owners of the farm gave us an overview of their operations. To them, organic means nothing synthetically derived can be used and then adhere to the rules for organic certification. They use a clay/aluminum /diatomaceous earth mix that is sprayed to stop some bugs from eating the cherries. They also use bio-controls that are bugs that eat the larvae of other bugs that pose a threat to the cherries. They can't use straight manure and pay a premium for a compost that has other nutrients mixed in. For cherries in 2015, this year hasn't been good for them. A late frost destroyed a significant portion of their crop. Michigan is the top tart cherry producing state (about 90% of the nations tart cherries). Many of these tart cherries are used as Maraschino cherries which are yellow cherries bleached, then sweetened, and then red dye is added.
We had evening dinner on the boat and then ice cream back in the town of Frankfort. On the pier at Frankfort, I was able to jump off three times. Two on the Lake Michigan cold side and one on the harbor side, much warmer. We saw lots of round goby and a couple very large fish come up to feed.
Jed, Mike and I went on a dessert binge in Frankfort, getting ice cream in every ice cream shop. I got free fudge scraps for asking at Kilwin's.
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