WRECKAGE OF THE WESTERN RESERVE FOUND IN LAKE SUPERIOR BY MARINE SONIC TECHNOLOGY : UNDISCOVERED FOR 132 YEARS

There was one survivor...

Excerpt:
The Great Lakes can be more dangerous than the oceans

The Great Lakes have claimed thousands of ships since the 1700s. Perhaps the most famous is the Edmund Fitzgerald, an ore carrier that got caught in a storm in November 1975 and went down off Whitefish Point within 100 miles of the Western Reserve. All hands were killed. The incident was immortalized in the Gordon Lightfoot song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

Assistant Wisconsin State Climatologist Ed Hopkins said that storm season on the lakes begins in November, when warm water meets cold air and winds blow unimpeded across open water, generating waves as high as 30 feet. The lakes at that time can be more dangerous than the oceans because they’re smaller, making it harder for ships to out-maneuver the storms, he said.

NBC NEWS : EXPLORERS FIND WRECKAGE OF SHIP "WESTERN RESERVE"

Excerpt: The brothers towed a side-scanning sonar array behind their ship. Side sonar scans starboard and port, providing a more expansive picture of the bottom than sonar mounted beneath a ship. About 60 miles northwest of Whitefish Point on the Upper Peninsula, they picked up a line with a shadow behind it in 600 feet of water. They dialed up the resolution and spotted a large ship broken in two with the bow resting on the stern.

LAKE SUPERIOR IS THE RESTING PLACE OF OVER 350 SHIPS

MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY - LAKE SUPERIOR SHIP WRECKS 

Excerpt: Of the estimated 10,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes region, only about 350 of them are located in Lake Superior. Of those, about 50 wrecks are presumed to be within Minnesota waters. Most of Minnesota's shipwreck history can be found in Lake Superior. Many wrecks have been located, but at least half lay undiscovered.

In an effort to aid in the safe navigation of the often-treacherous waters, the U.S. Lighthouse Service erected lighthouses in key locations throughout the Great Lakes region. Split Rock Lighthouse was built in response to the great winter gale of November 1905 that claimed 36 lives and disabled or destroyed 29 ships.

Siren here!  The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in 1975 - recent history - may be the most famous.  Read this site and learn about some of the ships that sank during the Industrial Revolution.  Many sunken ships have never been located!

SUMMER SEA SHORE FUN? CLEAN UP THE BEACHES!

If you're lucky enough to go to the beach this summer, maybe on a vacation if you don't live nearby, you'll probably enjoy going into the water to swim, splash in the waves, or ride the surf and on the beach you may be creating sand sculptures, laying around to rest or get a tan (though wearing sun screen in more popular), or looking for shells that have come in with the tide.

You may have also brought a lot of stuff along with you to the beach.  Bottled water.  Soda.  Possibly food, even food to be barbecued at the beaches that allow it.  Towels, flip flops and sandals, plastic bottles with lotions and oils, swim suits and extra clothes.  Books, sunglasses, and more.

If you're like me, when you get to the beach you often find things other people left behind, either because they were ignorant, lazy, or lost stuff.  Then there is the garbage, a lot of plastic, that has been dumped at sea or scattered from garbage cans.

This stuff really needs to be trashed in the right cans and dumpsters!

So do your part to KEEP THE BEACH CLEAN.
When you keep the BEACH clean you also help with the effort to keep THE LAKE or OCEAN CLEAN!  And that means that the sea creatures that live there have a better chance of survival!

One of the activities that can be fun is collecting the recycled cans and bottles that others leave behind, taking them to a recycling center and earning a little money from your effort.

But whatever you find, get it off the beach and into the trash where it belongs!

-Siren

TINY PLASTIC BEAD POLLUTION MIGHT BE THE MOST DIFFICULT TO FIX

WASHINGTON POST : GREAT LAKES and TINY PLASTIC BEADS POLLUTION 

Already ravaged by toxic algae, invasive mussels and industrial pollution, the Great Lakes now confront another potential threat that few had even imagined until recently: untold millions of plastic litter bits, some visible only through a microscope. Scientists who have studied gigantic masses of floating plastic in the world’s oceans are now reporting similar discoveries in the lakes that make up nearly one-fifth of the world’s fresh water. They retrieved the particles from Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie last year. This summer, they’re widening the search to Lakes Michigan and Ontario, skimming the surface with finely meshed netting dragged behind sailing vessels.