The Great Lakes are the subjects of several scientific studies each year, as researchers look at water quality, environmental factors and human impact on the waters that sustain us here in Michigan.
But there aren't too many studies that take place on a rebuilt 1813 naval warship, it's safe to say.
The Flagship Niagara, a historic vessel owned by the state of Pennsylvania and run by a nonprofit, recently graced Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie with a midsummer voyage of several purposes, not least of which is to serve as home to a group of environmental scientists looking at plastics in the Great Lakes.
First, to get you up to date on the Niagara itself: It was first built in 1813, and served as the U.S. flagship in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812, says Captain Wesley Heerssen.
The current incarnation of the Niagara is a rebuild dating from 1988, when the original hulk was mostly rotted away, he says. It now sails the lakes as a sailing school and scientific vessel, with a crew of 40 to 50 professionals, trainees, volunteers and students.
The Niagara, itself 200 years old this year, was in Marquette to celebrate the Cliffs Natural Resources-owned ore dock, which marks its hundredth birthday this summer. It welcomed aboard media representatives, Cliffs employees, several Big Brothers Big Sisters kids and their mentors. Since it's not a passenger vessel, everyone aboard pitched in to help the crew when needed, and learned about wooden ships, sailing, Great Lakes history, and the environmental studies taking place.
For three weeks, the researchers, including Stiv Wilson of the Los Angeles-based 5 Gyres Institute, Lorena M. Rios from the University of Wisconsin-Superior and Sam Mason of SUNY-Fredonia, are surveying plastic waste in the Great Lakes. It's the first study of its kind, and is backed by the nonprofit arm of Cleveland's Great Lakes Brewing Company, the Burning River Foundation.
Mason, Rios, Wilson and their students are using a trawl with a filtering apparatus attached to collect samples from small sections of the Great Lakes. They find out how much plastic is in each sample, and from there, can extrapolate to a larger area of the lake, says Wilson. They're interested in how fast plastics break down in sun and water, something that has not been studied in the past.
"Say we find a photodegraded piece of plastic -- we don't know how long it takes to become a smaller piece of plastic," Wilson says. Rios is also studying pollutants like PCBS, pesticides, and polyaromatics, which come from gasoline or oil.
"You can see history in the making on a historic vessel," says Bill Edwards, another science team member. He says the students also will look at some underwater shipwrecks using a remote-controlled submarine. The Niagara offers summer students the chance to do environmental science research and be trained on sailing a ship at the same time.
And lest you think a wooden brig is a terrible location for high-tech research, it's not that bad. The Niagara has engines and generators, with a few electric hookups, and Wilson says on the Great Lakes, you're never far from cell phone service. The team uses smartphones to send email and set up wireless hotspots for their laptops.
Wilson says the Great Lakes also were a good research location because scientists know how long it takes for a complete water exchange in the lakes, something that's harder to determine in the ocean. The Great Lakes are more isolated and more of a closed system, he says, which makes research experiments easier to design.
On a recent sail from Munising to Marquette, the science team ran the trawl for a half hour, and came up with small pieces of polystyrene, the sort from a foam cooler, and a piece of fishing line. While the results were useful, the researchers agreed they weren't necessarily good news.
"I would prefer to go out there and not find anything," says Mason. But the likelihood of that happening is the very reason the studies are so important.
Kim Eggleston is a freelance writer and editor based in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A Northern Michigan University graduate and Marquette native, she also is the managing editor of Marquette Monthly.
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