The W.G. Jackson Research Vessel

This August, the W.G. Jackson was hauled out for its 5-year Coast Guard dry dock Inspection. The haul out lasted 18 days and five very dedicated staff, under the supervision of Captain Fiore, worked 740 person-hours to finish the following tasks:

1. Painted the entire hull above and below water
2. Removed the paint and nonskid from the aft deck and replaced with new nonskid surface
3. Replaced all the aluminum hull anodes
4. Installed a new Raymarine DSM 300 Digital Depth Sounder
5. Removed the rudders, screws, and shafts (to complete item #6) and reinstalled
6. Removed the original shaft Cutlass Bearings and installed new bearings
7. Installed a new Lasdrop shaft seal on the Port MDE (main drive engine)
8. Drained the engine coolant from both MDEs and SSGs (ships service generator) and refilled with new
9. Removed and replaced all of the original coolant hoses in the Engine Room

We extend our deep appreciation to Moe Bronson of Van Eck Diesel Services (Holland, MI) for arranging the haul out with the DeVos family, and Mike Beckman and the DeVos family for allowing us the use of their building at Grand Haven Boat Storage to complete the haul out. In addition, we are immensely grateful to the very dedicated vessel staff, Captain Tony Fiore, Captain Jim Winks, Dave Fisher, James Rahe, Bob Marx, and Brian Hanson, who put in a tremendous amount of blood and sweat (and some tears, from what we understand) to keep the W.G. Jackson running and looking great.

Lake Michigan Center Events

Sept 9 The Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership held a meeting in the Annis Educational Foundation Classroom.
Sept 10 AWRI Seminar Series: Dr. Paul Isely from GVSU presented A preliminary look at the long run value to Muskegon of current remediation projects. Sept 16 Deb Dila, graduate student working with Bopi Biddanda, successfully passed her Qualifying Exam. Sept 17 Matt Zuellig, graduate student working with Ryan Thum, successfully presented his Thesis Defense. Sept 17 & 24 The GVSU Johnson Center for Philanthropy held the 2nd & 3rd sessions of a four part series, Nonprofit Skill Building Workshop, in the Multipurpose room. Sept 22 & 29 The Saranac Middle School 7th graders took a trip on the W.G. Jackson and visited the Annis Educational Foundation Classroom for hands-on activities.
Sept 29 & 30 The U.S. EPA Lake Michigan Watershed Academy held a Lake Michigan Forum in the Multipurpose room. Sept 30 The Muskegon River Watershed Assembly held a meeting in the Multipurpose room.

 

AWRI Activities

The D.J. Angus was used for a tour of Muskegon Lake at a NOAA-sponsored public event on Sept. 1

The W.G. Jackson traveled to Holland for four public Making Lake Michigan Great trips on Sept. 10. The trips were organized by the Macatawa Area Coordinating Council.

Carl Ruetz, Jordan Allison, Matt Altenritter, and Yakuta Bhagat attended the 140th annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society (AFS) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 12-16. Carl attended a workshop titled Basic Fish Population Modeling using Excel and also attended an AFS Books Editorial Advisory Board meeting.

The following AWRI oral presentations were given at the AFS meeting:

Allison, J.R.*, C.R. Ruetz III, and E.S. Rutherford. Factors limiting walleye reproduction in a Lake Michigan tributary.
Altenritter, M.E.*, C.R. Ruetz III, and K.M. Smith. Movement and habitat use of juvenile lake sturgeon ( Acipenser fulvescens) in a Lake Michigan tributary.
Bhagat, Y., and C.R. Ruetz III. Spatio-temporal distribution patterns and relationships with environmental variables in a Michigan coastal lake.(*Graduate students)

John Koches and Jon VanderMolen attended the GreenTown pre-conference titled GreenTown Grand Rapids CSP Energy Workshop, The Future of Energy in Western Michigan: How Communities Can Drive Change, at the Eberhard Center in Grand Rapids on September 9.

John Koches and Jon VanderMolen attended GreenTown - The Future of Community conference in Grand Rapids on September 10. John Koches moderated a GreenTown break-out session titled, Saving the Great Lakes.

Aileen Leinenbach, masters student from Germany working with Janet Vail, hosted an AWRI table at the Peace Jam in Muskegon on September 25.

Rick Rediske attended a Ph.D. committee meeting at Notre Dame on September 21 for Dave Janetski, to review results and to start preparation for his thesis defense. Dave presented his results at the American Fisheries Society meeting in Pittsburgh on September 18. Rick and Jim O'Keefe are co-authors. (Pollutant transport by introduced Pacific salmon to Great Lakes tributaries).

Amanda Syers and Amanda Maycroft greeted GVSU students and their parents who came to the Lake Michigan Center for Family Weekend cruises on the W.G. Jackson on September 18.

Ryan Thum spoke with DNR representatives from the Great Lakes states regarding the role that genetics can play in invasive aquatic plant management and ecology at a meeting on September 23-24 in Lansing.

Janet Vail attended a presentation on the Enbridge Oil Spill on September 15.

Jon VanderMolen attended the project update meeting for the West Michigan Wind Assessment held at Loutit District Library in Grand Haven on September 16.

 

AWRI Presentations

John Koches presented at the GreenTown - The Future of Community conference in Grand Rapids on September 10. His topics included the Muskegon River Watershed Research Partnership, Climate Change, and Watershed Management Adaptation.

Mark Luttenton was a guest lecturer for BIO 362, Fisheries Biology, on September 14.

Rick Rediske has been working on a Study Abroad proposal with the GVSU Honors College to go to Ghana in summer 2011. He presented it to the Padnos International Center on September 27. If funded, Rick will be overseeing a group of 12 students on a 6-week service learning project that involves clean water intervention and other cultural activities.

Al Steinman gave a presentation to an Environmental Law class at the University of Michigan Law School on September 13.

Al Steinman presented to the Ice Mountain Environmental Stewardship Fund at the Fremont Area Community Foundation on September 15, explaining his proposal to conduct year 3 monitoring for the Muskegon Lake shoreline restoration project.

Al Steinman presented at the Lake Michigan Forum meeting at AWRI on September 30. He spoke about research projects at AWRI.

Al Steinman was the keynote speaker at the Community Foundation for Muskegon County's Ambassador reception on September 30th at the Muskegon Country Club.

Ryan Thum demonstrated the sequencer and running sequences for CMB 250, Introduction to Biotech, on September 21 at the LMC.

 

Publications

Isely, E.S., P. Isely, S. Seedang, K. Mulder, K. Thompson, and A.D. Steinman. 2010. Educating local policy makers on the values associated with green infrastructure in west Michigan: Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services Tool (INVEST). Journal of Great Lakes Research 36: 448-457.

 

Awards & Recognition

Bopi Biddanda was recognized as an outstanding Educator-Mentor at the Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence Great Lakes (COSEE - Great Lakes) summit in Oregon, OH during their September 24-25 meeting.

Bopi Biddanda and other AWRI staff were authors of a 2006 paper (cited below) chosen from a pool of 9000 highly cited papers in the Web of Science, to be part of an international study of scientific projects to examine project goals, scientific workforce, project organization, scientific collaboration and scientific outputs by a joint NSF funded project between Georgia Tech and Hitotsubashi University, Japan. The objective of this world-wide project is to understand why some projects lead to discovery and origin of new knowledge.

Biddanda, B.A., D.F. Coleman, T.H. Johengen, S.A. Ruberg, G.A. Meadows, H.W. VanSumeren, R. R. Rediske and S.T. Kendall. 2006. Exploration of a submerged sinkhole ecosystem in Lake Huron. Ecosystems, 9:828-842.

 

AWRI In The News

GVSUs water institute receives $1.4 million in research grants
Grand Haven Tribune, September 4, 2010 The four U.S. EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative awards are listed. Al Steinman is quoted.

GVSUs Robert B. Annis Water Resources Institute receives nearly 1.4 million in GLRI funding
Examiner.com, September 10, 2010 The four U.S. EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative awards are mentioned.

Grand Valley State University studies suggest wind turbine flicker and noise is minimal
Muskegon Chronicle, September 10, 2010 AWRI is a partner with Seidman College of Business conducting the West Michigan Wind Assessment project.

Grand grants
MiBiz, September 13, 2010 The article is about the four U.S. EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grants recently awarded to AWRI.

Groups explore Lake Macatawas water quality
The Grand Rapids Press, September 13, 2010 The W. G. Jackson research vessel took Holland area residents on Lake Macatawa, where they learned about water quality.