Great Lakes Daily News

A new study found that microfibers are present in several types of algae from lakes Michigan, Erie, Huron, and Ontario in areas with high and low populations. Because the pollutant is stringy, other toxic chemicals like PFAS attach to microfibers and can get to other organisms more easily. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.

A preliminary budget outline from the Office of Management and Budget requests that federal involvement in many aspects of Great Lakes science be eliminated entirely by next year. It calls for NOAA’s budget to be reduced by nearly $1.7 billion from 2025 levels, including ending funding for Sea Grant programs nationwide. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.

An ice buildup in the Soo Locks caused an eight-hour delay for some big freighters, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to send its tug to break up the ice and pass it downstream so shipping could resume.  Read the full story by MLive.

As one of the first major initiatives of the new Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary, a research vessel will spend several weeks near Oswego, New York, using a remotely controlled robot to document shipwrecks located hundreds of feet below the surface of Lake Ontario. Read the full story by Oswego County News Now.

After the seasonal decline during the winter months, the water levels in Lake Erie are on the rise again and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers predicts the levels will rise for the next six months. Current levels are around the long-term average for April. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.

Governor Pritzker of Illinois said he’s still awaiting written guarantees that the federal government will fund the $1.15 billion project to block invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needs Illinois to transfer property in order to begin construction on the long-awaited fortifications at a chokepoint dam on the Des Plaines River. Read the full story by MLive.

Steelhead, a type of rainbow trout that head to the Knife River in Minnesota’s North Shore to spawn, have experienced dramatic population decline over the past decade. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are weighing, measuring, and tagging the fish to learn where they’re coming from, where they’re going, and why their numbers have dropped. Read the full story by WCCO-TV – Minneapolis, MN.

Pennsylvania’s Presque Isle typically receives $3 million annually for its sand replenishment project, with half coming from the Commonwealth and the other half in federal funding. Because of current federal funding uncertainty, sand work likely won’t start until July, despite the work typically beginning in the spring. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.

Ozaukee County’s main marina in Port Washington, Wisconsin, received a shipment of 60,000 salmon from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in preparation for the summer’s charter fishing ventures. Read the full story by WTMJ-TV – Milwaukee, WI.

The Trump administration’s new trade rules aimed at penalizing operators of Chinese-built ships and boosting domestic shipbuilding appear to have spared the Great Lakes shipping industry from fees on ships built in China. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.