The Department of Natural Resources has announced all four of its research vessels are back on the water, conducting annual surveys of Great Lakes fish populations. The DNR’s vessels are critical in the department’s mission to conserve, protect and manage the Great Lakes for the use and enjoyment of current and future generations. The surveys are designed to estimate relative abundance, biomass, age and growth, health, diet, survival rates, natural reproduction and movements of fish in the Great Lakes.

As recreational boaters gear up for a summer of fun on coastal waters and the Great Lakes, NOAA is testing MyNOAACharts, a new mobile application that allows users to download NOAA nautical charts and editions of the U.S. Coast Pilot. The app, which is only designed for Android tablets for the testing period, will be released on May 20.

MyNOAACharts, which can be used on land and on the water, has GPS built-in capabilities that allow users find their positions on a NOAA nautical chart. They can zoom in any specific location with a touch of the finger, or zoom out for the big picture to plan their day of sailing. The Coast Pilot has “geotagged” some of the major locations -- embedding geographical information, such as latitude and longitude, directly into the chart so it is readable in the app -- and provides links to appropriate federal regulations. The app can be downloaded from the Google Play™ app store.

A series of Michigan Sea Grant workshops show growing Lake Huron fish populations and improving attitudes about the Great Lake’s fishery.

The April workshops were held in Michigan at Ubly, Oscoda and Cedarville for anglers, boaters and interested community members.

Researchers from the Sea Grant, Michigan State University, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Great Lakes Science Center gave presentations on invasive species research and fishery management.

“Our spring workshops were pretty exciting, given the drastic ecological changes caused by invasive species in Lake Huron,” said Brandon Schroeder, the northeast district educator for the Michigan Sea Grant.

Another wetter-than-average Ohio spring has experts worried that severe toxic-algae problems will return to Lake Erie this summer.

Storms that drenched northwestern Ohio have so far this year nearly doubled the average amount of phosphorus that washes off farm fields each spring and flows down the Maumee River to Lake Erie. Phosphorus, a key ingredient in fertilizers, helps blue-green algae grow.

Jeffrey Reutter, director of the Ohio Sea Grant Program, shared the data during an Ohio Senate Finance Subcommittee hearing yesterday. He said it doesn’t guarantee that a record algae bloom will spread across the lake as it did during the summer of 2011.

The International Joint Commission (IJC) today released a report on how the health of the Great Lakes has changed over the past 25 years.

While sustained governmental and public efforts have measurably improved Great Lakes water quality, rapid reduction in ice cover and the resurgence of some pollutants like excess nutrients are among the indicators currently raising concerns. Based on contributions from a wide range of U.S. and Canadian experts, the report reveals a mix of achievements and challenges.

"With the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement just revised in 2012, both Canada and the U.S. have renewed and strengthened their commitment to protect and restore the Great Lakes," said Joe Comuzzi, Canadian Chair of the IJC. "Tight budgets on both sides of the border mean that cooperation and coordination of clean-up efforts are even more important, and the recommendations in this report can help."