Great Lakes

From the outside, US commercial shipping may look like an industry past its prime. The American fleet, called the US Merchant Marine, comprised 16% of the global commercial fleet in 1960. Now, it makes up less than half of a percent of commercial ships worldwide.

Extreme rainfall and reduced evaporation during the 2010s caused the Great Lakes to rise to record-breaking levels by 2020, swallowing up beaches and digging away at the dunes behind them, threatening waterfront homes like the Brickleys’ which is in Berrien County.

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission will receive a $2.1 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to address the invasive sea lamprey in the Grand River in Grand Rapids. We hear from U.S. Rep. Dingell of Ann Arbor and the mayor of Troy who chairs the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

Central Michigan University's Ron Bloomfield was recently reappointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to sit on committee to protect Great Lakes' underwater historical sites and artifacts.

The National Wildlife Federation says Michigan's environment department should fully review what damage drilling the tunnel for a new pipeline segment might cause.

As whitefish populations decline in the Great Lakes, a nonprofit organization of political leaders in the region, called Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers, introduced a 100% Great Lakes Fish Initiative to sell and utilize all parts of whitefish. But fishermen say they're still waiting for new markets to sell various fish parts.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is calling it the "greatest day of deregulation our nation has ever seen." But Michigan environmental groups don't think this is cause for celebration.

Seasonal federal workers help control the eel-like, parasitic fish each year.

The vice president once pushed for restoration funding. Advocates hope he hasn't forgotten.

The Great Lakes are one of the most important economic drivers in Michigan, yet we know more about the surface of the moon than the floor of the lakes, according to the Great Lakes Observing System.