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Message Subject: Great Lakes Vault of Knowledge?

walleye express

Posted 12/1/2004 9:32 AM (#24745)
Subject: Great Lakes Vault of Knowledge?

Member

Posts: 2680

Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay.

Thought it might be a good learning tool for our younger board readers, and probably for many others including myself, to post some Historical Great Lakes Facts. Plus it will fill in the lag time sooon approaching, that most will have between the open water fishery and ice.

O.K. Question 1. Who discovered the Great Lakes?

Answer:The first discoverers of the Great Lakes were Native peoples, who were the original inhabitants and settlers of the region. Europeans didn't arrive at the Great Lakes until around the year 1600 or so.

The man generally credited with the European "discovery" of the Great Lakes is Étienne Brûlé (1592?-1632), a French scout for the explorer Samuel de Champlain (1567?-1635).

Brûlé reached Georgian Bay on Lake Huron around 1615, and went on to see Lake Ontario and the Susquehanna River. Champlain, meanwhile, explored the St. Lawrence River and eventually founded the first European settlement on the site of what is now called Québec in 1608. He first saw the lake that now bears his name in 1609 and in 1611, Champlain founded the trading post of Montréal.

Question 2. The reasoning is, that we had a better perch population in the "Old Days" (50's/60's/70's) due to higher phosphate levels on the Great Lakes and in Saginaw Bay imparticular. And that this was caused by Detergents. So do detergents contain a good food for algae?

Answer: Most of the popular brands of detergents in stores contain chemicals called phosphates. Phosphates are an organic substance (also used in fertilizers) that algae can eat to grow quickly and reproduce rapidly in a process that can lead to the eutrophication of a body of water.

Detergents are often confused with regular soap, but they are actually quite different. They are not natural products and should always be carefully used. Many of them contain very powerful chemicals, bleaches, and enzymes that can be dangerous for you as well as the environment. Detergent residues can even last up to ten times longer than soap in rivers and lakes before being broken down by bacteria! All kinds of detergents destroy the external mucus layers that protect fish from bacteria and parasites. They also lower the water's surface tension, making pesticides and other chemicals more easily absorbed by the fish.

You can ask your shop manager where you can find the available environmentally safe detergents (they should be both bio-degradable and phosphate-free).

Question 3. Which of the Great lakes are the most poluted?

Answer: Lakes Erie and Ontario are sometimes considered to be the most polluted Great Lakes because they are by far the smallest of the lakes, have many people living around them, and are the last lakes in the system of basins. This means that they receive a portion of the contaminants from each of the other lakes. Phosphorous, bacterial contamination (by E. coli and others), and persistant organic pollutants (POPs) are particularly hazardous forms of water pollution in the Great Lakes as well as other water supplies around the world.

Each of the Lakes are polluted to some degree, which is why many agencies and organizations try to focus on cleaning up the most polluted areas first in an attempt to improve the overall quality of water in the Great Lakes. The United States and Canada use tools like Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) to clean up the worst of these areas, and then use Lakewide Management Plan (LaMPs) to help keep them clean.

Question 4. Is it safe to drink water directly from the Great lakes?

Answer: There is no such thing as absolutely pure water. Water is an extremely good solvent; this means that any quantity of water can dissolve some amount of almost anything else. So in its natural state, water always contains impurities. Because of this, we do not recommend drinking water directly from the Great Lakes.

At a time when the water levels of the great Lakes are low, there is a higher volume of material (including pollution, biological waste, and other chemicals) dissolved in the water of the Great Lakes. This is why all water is always treated and filtered before it comes to your home.

Many of the chemicals dissolved in water are not harmful, they may in fact, be good for you. For example, calcium is essential for building healthy bones and teeth. Yet too much calcium can be dangerous. Just remember that there's a lot more in the water of the Great Lakes than just plain water!

Thats it for today, class dismissed. I'll add 4 more questions and answers in a few days if you guys like the idea.

Edited by walleye express 12/1/2004 10:08 AM

KansasState

Posted 12/1/2004 9:49 AM (#24748 - in reply to #24745)
Subject: RE: Great Lakes Vault of Knowledge?

Like it!

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