Environment

Prehistoric hunting grounds found deep in Lake Huron

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Deep below the chill waters of Lake Huron, scientists have found long-submerged physical evidence that prehistoric peoples systematically and strategically hunted caribou thousands of years ago. Searching 50 miles offshore from Alpena, researchers discovered “drive lanes” — in effect, runways of death that channeled unwitting caribou into the clutches of hidden hunters — and stone hunting blinds where hunters awaited their prey. “Caribou have a thing for linear features. They like following lines,” said scientific researcher Lisa Sonnenburg of the environmental consulting firm Stantec Consulting Inc. in Hamilton, Ontario. “Line stones up in a row and caribou will follow them.

Environment

Great Lakes writer tackles tale of survival 50 years after Lake Huron shipwreck

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By NATASHA BLAKELY
Capital News Service

LANSING — Michael Schumacher was born and raised in Wisconsin and has been living right by the shore of Lake Michigan all of his life. “The lake means a lot to me so I won’t take it for granted, ever,” said Schumacher, 62. “I tried to read a lot of the history, learn as much as I can. The more I can learn the better, and I’ve learned the five Great Lakes have separate personalities; they’re all different in their own way.”
He should know. Schumacher recently wrote “Torn in Two: The Sinking of the Daniel J. Morrell and One Man’s Survival on the Open Sea.” It is his 13th published book, and the fourth in his series on Great Lakes shipwrecks.

Environment

High tech studies Lake Huron shipwrecks

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By JULIANA MOXLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING — Diving isn’t the only way to get an in-depth look at the mysteries beneath the surface of the Great Lakes. Lasers, underwater robots and other innovative technologies are simplifying the discovery of and research about hundreds of shipwrecks at the bottom of the Great Lakes. Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a part of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is a 4,300-square-mile shipwreck sanctuary in northwestern Lake Huron near Alpena. It has one of America’s best-preserved and nationally significant collection of shipwrecks. There are 92 known wrecks in the newly expanded sanctuary, and four have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, said Sarah Waters, the education coordinator at the sanctuary.

Environment

Wave of mudpuppies on Lake Huron beaches puzzle scientists

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By JENNIFER KALISH
Capital News Service
LANSING — A large number of unusual salamanders called mudpuppies washed ashore on many Lake Huron beaches during Superstorm Sandy. “When I was walking our dogs on the beach I counted 40 in front of our home and the two houses just south of us,” said Barbara Stimpson of Fort Gratiot Township. Five miles south of Stimpson’s home, Dave Dortman found more than 50 dead mudpuppies washed ashore within 100 feet on Lakeside Beach in Port Huron. “I’ve lived in Port Huron my whole life and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a storm like this with such huge waves,” said Dortman, a former environmental quality analyst for the Department of Environmental Quality. The waves on Lake Huron were hitting 23 feet before the weather buoys stopped reporting, Dortman said.

Environment

Researchers focus attention on Lake Huron

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By SARA MATTHEWS
Capital News Service
LANSING — Lake Huron has the most shoreline and is the second largest of the Great Lakes, yet it gets perhaps the least scientific attention. That will soon change now that Lake Huron is the home of a new long-term research program started by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. From the agency’s base at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, scientists are studying water quality, invasive and native species, nutrient levels and physical properties of the lake. It’s long overdue, said Henry Vanderploeg, the program’s lead researcher. “Lake Huron is the least studied lake,” Vanderploeg said.

Environment

Efforts to boost Lake Huron herring threatened by fish disease

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Algae blooms, overfishing and invasive species depleted once thriving schools of Great Lakes herring. Now Michigan officials want to bring them back in Lake Huron. But there’s a new concern – lake herring are highly susceptible to an emerging fatal fish disease. Researchers found that lake herring are prime targets for Viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus. It causes organs, skin and muscles to hemorrhage.