CSMI Lake Huron 2017 | Great Lakes Center | SUNY Buffalo State College

A group of people posing for a picture in front of a ship called Lake Guardian.

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In September 2017, scientists and crew of the R/V Lake Guardian gathered for CSMI Lake Huron, in Alpena, Michigan.

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Two people wearing red survival suits on the deck of a large boat. There is an emergency rescue watercraft on deck behind them.

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Kit Hastings and Sasha Karatayev don survival suits as part of safety training.

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A map of Lake Huron, the Northern Channel, Georgian Bay, and Saginaw Bay. Alpena, Michigan is also labeled.

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The CSMI focused on Lake Huron this year. It took about two weeks to collect samples from about 100 sites in Lake Huron, its Northern Channel, and Georgian Bay. Samples from Saginaw Bay were collected by another agency.

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Two people open up a grab sampler into a bucket on the deck of a large boat. Three people are standing behind them.

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Collecting a ponar grab sample of sediment and organisms from the bottom of the lake.

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Two people tilt up a basin with sediment in it while a third person uses a hose to wash the sediment through a hole into a mesh sleeve with a bottle on the end of it. They are working on the deck of a large boat.

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Knut Mehler, Kit Hastings, and Allison Neubauer (Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant) wash a benthos sample down in the elutriator and run it through a mesh sleeve to separate the organisms from the sediment.

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Several people work on the back deck of a large boat at twilight.

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Scientists working around the clock to collect samples from Lake Huron.

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A person holds up a bowl of mud while another person points a tablet at it to record an image or video. They are both wearing hard hats and life jackets inside a lab on a boat.

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Elizabeth Hinchey-Malloy (EPA) and Allison Neubauer (Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant) conducted education and outreach on board by making video calls to classrooms.

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Two people stand on the deck of a large boat to prepare a large piece of equipment to be deployed.

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The rosette is used to collect water samples, as well as temperature, conductivity, and chlorophyll levels. No water samples were collected on this cruise, but it was still used to collect a site profile.

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9/18

This large rock was the only thing pulled up in one ponar sample. The site was deemed too rocky for sampling with that method.

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A person kneels before a metal frame with sled feet on the deck of a large boat. They are turning on lights and adjusting a camera.

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The benthic sled has a camera mounted on the front of it to take videos of a transect on the bottom of the lake. This is a new method to sample dreissenid mussel concentration and coverage, which can be quite patchy, over a long transect.

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Two people help steady a metal frame as it is lifted off the deck of a large boat by a winch.

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Deploying the benthic sled.

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A metal frame with three sled feet is lowered into the water.

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Deploying the benthic sled.

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A still image from a video taken at the bottom of the lake. The tips of two sled feet are visible, as well as the lake bottom of mud with some dreissenid mussels. The sled feet are stirring up mud in plumes.

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Video from the benthic sled is used to estimate the coverage of dreissenid mussels, which can be very patchy, with some areas having even coverage while others have densely-populated pockets. This method may be a better estimate than ponar sampling.

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