The Great Lakes Are Talking. Let’s Listen To Their Cries Of Neglect.

Written for an assignment 11-22-2010

My name is Meggie Caterwren. I’m 37 years old, and live in Petoskey, near Lake Michigan. I’m an environmentalist and also have a PhD in marine biology, plant physiology and marine ecology. I have been studying the condition of the Great Lakes since I was 23. I’ll tell you one thing; it’s going to take a lot more work to clean the lakes than what we’re doing now.

Pollution in the Great Lakes is still a big problem. Non-point source pollution is a big part of the problem. Since you don’t know where the pollution is coming from, you can’t just go to a person’s door and say stop polluting the water. It’s not possible. Most farmers don’t know that they’re polluting the rivers around them when they dump helpful chemicals on their crops to make sure that they can grow. When those rivers get polluted and it’s raining, all the chemicals in the river get washed into the Great Lakes. Toxic sediments are also a big problem. There is probably is no way to get all the sediments with toxins in it out from the bottom of all the Great Lakes. That means if you go and grab a handful of sand/muck from under the water, most of it will just fall right out of your hands because it’s so toxic. Another pollution problem is pollution in the air, like mercury. So every time someone breaks a light bulb, their polluting the air because they accidently broke it. It’s not their fault their clumsy, sometimes accidents happen. Smoking also pollutes the air because of the 4000 different chemicals in it.

Invasive species are also a problem. Not only do most of the species get into the lakes by ballast water from ships and there over 170 different species in the lakes, the Asian Carp is practically next door waiting for a chance to invade the Great Lakes. The invasive species that are in the Great Lakes though have already damaged the ecosystems there. Think about adding in the Asian Carp to the picture. Those jumping fish would permanently destroy the ecosystems so much so that I doubt that any efforts could heal the damage.

Habitat loss is (unfortunately) still a problem in and around the Great Lakes. We, the citizens of the land around every one of the Great Lakes and timber companies have cut down almost half of the original forest. As if that isn’t bad enough, we have to have even more people moving here, which puts pressure on the habitats located here. What angers me most though is the number of wetlands lost. More than half of them have already disappeared. Even though some builders are required to make new wetlands for every one they destroy, soon enough there will be even more need for land, and the builders won’t have enough room to make a new wetland.

What Should Be Done

· Protect more wetlands

· Check ballast water before dumping it

· Remove every sediment with toxins in it

· Plant more trees along the Great Lakes

· Transport all Asian Carp back to Asia