Archives for the 'Great Lakes' Category
Pirates Attack on Lake Michigan: Grand Haven, Beaver Island, Manitous Threatened by Marauders Causes Excitement
Pirates on Lake Michigan have attacked boats and towns during the 1800’s, wreaking havoc and mayhem in their search for booty in regions such as Beaver Island, the Manitous and Grand Haven.
WBBM Newsradio 780 reports:
CHICAGO (WBBM) – While the world watches the Somali pirate drama, there’s a story to be told of pirates right here on Lake Michigan.
Lake Michigan was home to a few pirates from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The headline: Wholesale robbery by pirates on Lake Michigan. The date: October 10, 1855, in the New York Times.
The Times reported on people in the area around Saugutuck, Michigan, “thrown into the most intense excitement by the operations of a gang of marauders, who are reported to be Mormons from Beaver Island.”
But it wasn’t other ships that were attacked, it was land-based stores.
Half a century later – and almost 101 years ago – “Roaring” Dan Seavey took control of a Great Lakes cargo ship and sailed it to Chicago.
He reportedly got control of the 40-foot schooner Nellie Johnson in Grand Haven, Michigan, by out-drinking its captain and crew – then stealing it.
The Sun-Times reports that Seavey “found no fortune in his pirating: He was unable to sell the load of cedar posts in Chicago and was captured back near his home in Frankfort, Michigan.”
Fighting Invasive Lamprey in Great Lakes
National Public Radio describes a possible new solution for the lamprey problem, gratuitously invoking vampirism and sex to tell the story:
A team at Michigan State University has discovered how to create sort of a “Love Potion No. 9” to attract an invasive species of fish out of the Great Lakes.
Originally from the Atlantic, the lamprey is usually considered a parasite. But in the Great Lakes it has achieved the status of predator. Researcher Nicholas Johnson says the fish is killing off other large predator species and has “completely changed the ecosystem.”
Lampreys use their suction-cup-like mouths to attach to other fish and feed off their blood. Their prey is often left for dead, giving the lamprey the moniker “the vampire fish.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spends $20 million annually to control the jawless fish. Now they may have a new weapon to combat the invasion — lamprey perfume.
The substance is created from the pheromones the male lamprey releases to attract females during mating season. Johnson and his team are using it to redirect the females into traps.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101892336
Dark Evening…
Gothic Chicago skyline at dusk, weather front over Lake Michigan on Saturday, November 15, 2008, showing rain cloud tendrils descending
Now you can show your friends what it looks like when you encounter a dark weather front out on the lake…
This picture captures the ghostly tendrils descending from the gray skies where a gap in the cloud cover is indicated by sunlight highlighting the phenomenon.
The distinctly gothic elements of the cloudy overcast, dark water, and architecture of the distant Chicago skyline on the horizon on a cold and gloomy November afternoon contrasted sharply with Roy Disney’s “Morning Light” sailing documentary playing in local theaters at the time.
Study: Erosion Causing Lakes’ Water Loss
Erosion caused by dredging and other human activities on the St. Clair River is causing Lakes Huron and Michigan to lose 2.5 billion gallons of water daily, according to a private Canadian study.
Like a bathtub drain, the artificially deepened river is funneling vast amounts of water into Lake Erie, where it flows east to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River before eventually being lost to the Atlantic Ocean, says the study released Tuesday.
