Tech ship plays part in festivities
Tech ship plays part in festivities
By GARRETT NEESE, DMG Writer
CHASSELL — Enthusiastic crowds piled aboard Michigan Tech University’s research vessel Saturday at the Chassell Strawberry Festival for an educational excursion showcasing food webs of the Great Lakes.
The “Agassiz” allows Tech researchers to share some of what they’re finding out in their research with the public, said professor Charlie Kerfoot.
“These kind of community events are great opportunities to bring out the Agassiz and get people in,” he said.
The ship, custom-built at an East Coast shipyard for the university in 2000, has been used for hundreds of cruises for Copper Country schoolchildren through the Western U.P. Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Outreach.
Saturday, Kerfoot explained an aquatic food web for lake trout as seen in the Upper Great Lakes.
It’s a multi-tiered system, beginning with microscopic plants (phytoplankton), which are eaten by larger zooplankton and other animals dwelling on the bottom (benthos).
Benthic forage fish then eat benthos and the zooplankon, while pelagic (open water) fish subsist on zooplankton.
Lake trout then feed on both the pelagic and benthic fish, before then being eaten by humans. In this way, energy and nutrients work their way up the food chain. Unfortunately, so does pollution.
For each step up the food chain, the level of pollutants increases tenfold, Kerfoot said.
Overall, he said, the Portage is in good shape. Part of this, he said, is due to a phenomenon where a cold front causes the lake to flip itself two or three times per year, oxygenating the water.
“It’s a very pleasant place right now,” he said. “It’s recovering very well from the mining.” Torch Lake is more severely impacted, he said, though it’s slowly recovering.
Passengers on the boat were also able to take turns looking at freshly retrieved samples of the aquatic life under a microscope.
Afterward, Shari Vrana, of Beacon Hill, said she enjoyed the presentation.
“It was great,” she said. “It was important to get people out on the water to appreciate what we have.”
Her daughter Nia, 8, agreed. “I liked seeing the plankton,” she said.
Garrett Neese can be reached at gneese@mininggazette.com
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