Transportation & Roads
Chalk up another victim of exotics: shipwrecks
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By JON GASKELL
Capital News Service
LANSING – Thousands of shipwrecks lie at the bottom of Michigan waters. These cultural treasures attract thousands of visitors to the state, but changing conditions in the Great Lakes threaten their preservation. According to Tom Graf, a water resource specialist with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Great Lakes are home to an estimated 6,000 shipwrecks with about 2,000 of them in Michigan. But the Great Lakes hold more than just ships. Piers, wharves and an estimated 200 military aircraft lost during training exercises in World War II litter the lake’s floor.