Region

In Muskegon, 'Go Blue!' has nothing to do with a university's sports team (video)

glbm — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:37:11 +0000

Dave Alexander, mlive.com

Feb 1 2012

MUSKEGON — Some would argue that Muskegon County is behind other communities in embracing, promoting and exploiting the “green economy.”

But that shouldn't be the case with the emerging “blue economy,” a national think tank scholar and head of the Michigan State Board of Education said. Blue means water and that should be Muskegon's ace in the hole, community leaders say.

“I'm really bullish on this community and its opportunities,” John Austin told last week's Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce's Business for Breakfast. Austin is a non-resident, senior fellow with the Brookings Institution and a senior fellow with the University of Michigan's School of Education.

>> Read more

LOVE Aquatic Sweepstakes

glbm — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:55:08 +0000

Virginia Tourism Corp.

Jan 30 2012

Enter for your chance to win one of four Virginia Vacations!

Enter to win in the LOVE Aquatic Sweepstakes! The sweepstakes features four grand prize adventures for families that combine fun and learning on the water. From Atlantic beaches to woodland lakes and freshwater mountain streams, Virginia is awash in aquatic fun for families, providing experiences that connect loved ones together in memories that last a lifetime. The LOVE Aquatic Sweepstakes highlights a sampling of the best of these Virginia experiences.

Adults 21 and over can register to win one of four aquatic adventures based in Norfolk, Smith Mountain Lake, the Tides Inn in Irvington and Richmond. Drawings will be held March 16, May 11, June 15 and August 10th.

>> Read more

Tourism office offers boating map, guide

glbm — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:40:04 +0000

Finger Lakes Times

Jan 26 2012

LYONS — The Wayne County Office of Tourism, in partnership with the tourism offices in Onondaga, Oswego, Seneca and Cayuga counties, has produced an “on the water” map and guide.
The free guide features boating services, dining, lodging and attractions near the waterways.

>> Read more

Barge service wants to locate fleeting area on Indiana bank next to Six Mile Island

glbm — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:50:17 +0000

Ben Zion Hershberg, Courier-Journal

Jan 25 2012

Recreational boaters say they will fight a barge service’s proposal to locate a fleeting operation in the channel between the Indiana riverbank and Six Mile Island.

“This could not be in a worse place,” said Steve Smith, a lawyer who has represented the recreational boating community in permit disputes before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Smith said the Mt. Vernon Barge Service’s permit application calls for a barge mooring area that could take up nearly half the 400-foot width of the channel. It would be on the Indiana bank, about 300 feet downriver from the entrance to the Admirals Anchor Marina.

Because of the safety risks to recreational boaters, Smith said, the corps “just needs to deny this one flat out.”

Don Miller, who owns Mt. Vernon Barge, denied that the fleeting operation, where barges would be organized into tows, presents a safety risk.

>> Read more

Great Lakes, Seaway under threat from pleasure boats: security report

glbm — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:45:53 +0000

Ian MacLeod, Postmedia News

Jan 23 2012

With millions of pleasure craft plying the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, marine security officials’ greatest concern is the threat of small, harmless-looking boats attacking nuclear plants, international bridges, chemical factories and other vital infrastructure along the Canada-U.S. border.

The assessment is among a series of critical findings in a new report that concludes Canada has no coherent strategy for dealing with a growing national security threat posed by small boats in high-traffic border regions.

The commissioned study for Defence Research and Development Canada warns that public safety, the economy and trade with the United States are all at potential risk unless Canada embraces advanced surveillance technologies and a unified operational structure to replace the maze of police and government organizations now responsible for marine security.

>> Read more

Great Lakes Research Institute hires five faculty members in effort to ‘maintain leadership reputation’

glbm — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:54:42 +0000

Catey Traylor, Central Michigan Life

Jan 19 2012

The Great Lakes Research Institute has several new changes including the hiring of five faculty members and course expansion.

According to the Year-End Academic Review, “[CMU] strengthened the ranks of our strong faculty by hiring new tenure-track faculty across the campus, including the hiring of a cohort of five excellent faculty members focusing on Great Lakes research.”

Dr. Deric Learman, Dr. Anthony Chappaz, Dr. Yong Tian, Dr. Hunter Carrick, Dr. Kevin Pangle and Dr. Andrew Mahon were hired last spring and are the newest members of the institute.

Dr. Donald Uzarski, Director of the Institute for Great Lakes Research, said Central Michigan University was looking to build on what the university deems one of its strengths and performed a search for new faculty members. Plans are in the works to add new courses within the program, starting this summer with a class at the CMU biological station on Beaver Island.

>> Read more

New GLIER director has lots of fish stories

glbm — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:50:40 +0000

Sharon Hill, The Windsor Star

Jan 10 2012

WINDSOR, Ont. -- Dan Heath was in a dumpy hotel in "middle-of-nowhere" Saskatchewan watching a shark documentary when he had an epiphany.

"It suddenly hit me that this documentary on TV was way more interesting and fun than my life despite the fact that I was making gobs of money and living a fairly wild life for a young 21-year-old or whatever it was. And that's when it hit me that I had to do biology."

He put his physics degree and job in the Alberta oilfields behind him, found a McGill University biology professor who would take him on as a masters student and then faced another career-changing decision.

"He asked me what I wanted to work on and I said polar bears. And he laughed a bit and said, 'you've got a choice, you work on either fish or you work on insects' because that's what his lab worked on."

Heath figured fish were closer to polar bears. He never looked back.

>> Read more

You haven't lived here until ... you've crossed the ice bridge between St. Ignace and Mackinac Island

glbm — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:15:06 +0000

Ron Dzwonkowski, Detroit Free Press

Dec 21 2011

You mean the Mackinac Bridge? No. That's the man-made one linking our two peninsulas. The ice bridge is nature's work.

>> Read more

Great Lakes islands have unique wildlife, landscape and environmental challenges

glbm — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:42:12 +0000

Carol Thompson, Great Lakes Echo

Dec 5 2011

When Dan Kraus looks at a Great Lakes map, he pays close attention to see if the islands that pepper the region are included. Often, he said, the landmasses are left out.

>> Read more

Former college president to helm boating museum

glbm — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:34:13 +0000

Finger Lakes Times

Dec 5 2011

GENEVA — A retired college president has been tapped to serve as executive director of the Finger Lakes Boating Museum.

>> Read more

Michigan trade group hands out honors

glbm — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:26:23 +0000

Soundings Trade Only

Dec 5 2011

The Michigan Boating Industries Association honored Macomb County, county executive Mark Hackel and land and water use planner Gerry Santoro, with its Lighthouse Award at a luncheon held during last week’s MBIA Recreational Boating Educational Conference.

>> Read more

Seneca North: Admirals Club salutes Finger Lakes museum

glbm — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:59:53 +0000

Neil Chaffie, Star-Gazette

Nov 7 2011

Rochester businessman Al Hetzke, a member of the Finger Lakes Boating Museum, and chairman of the Admirals Club, predicted during a meeting in Geneva that the proposed museum will help the city just as the Antique Boating Museum boosted the fortunes of Clayton on the St. Lawrence River.

>> Read more

Lake Effect Boating group excited about second year of promoting Muskegon Lake

glbm — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:03:25 +0000

Dave Alexander, Dave Alexander, Muskegon Chronicle

Nov 4 2011

MUSKEGON — Even before the last sailboats were taken from local anchorages and powerboats pulled from their slips, the Muskegon Lake maritime community gathered to plan for the 2012 boating season.

>> Read more

An Idyllic Lake Erie Idyllic island for sale -dirt+cheap

glbm — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:48:27 +0000

Doug Schmidt, Postmedia News

Aug 8 2011

It's a stunning, pristine offshore natural jewel, miles from the nearest human presence in an otherwise densely populated region and located just inside Canada's border in the middle of Lake Erie's western basin.

And this 9.5-acre (3.8-hectare) beauty — sitting at the same latitude as Northern California and described by one rare visitor as "almost-Caribbean" — can be yours for the price of an average two-bedroom downtown condo in Vancouver.

>> Read more

Behind the Scenes of Station Grand Haven

glbm — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:32:07 +0000

Becky Vargo, Knight Ridder/Tribune

Aug 8 2011

GRAND HAVEN -- Area residents and boaters are used to seeing Coast Guard crews on patrol in local waterways, and responding to the occasional water rescue.

What they do with the rest of their time remains somewhat a mystery to those outside the fenced-in Coast Guard station on Harbor Drive.

>> Read more