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Travels the Length of Lake Erie
Lake Guardian made her way back past Mackinac City
and turned south. She traveled on Lake Huron past Alpena and on
through the St. Clair River towards Lake Erie. Her studies had shown
that the dirtiest areas of the Great Lakes were the riverways that
lead into the Great Lakes. The St. Clair and Detroit
Rivers were two of them, so Lake Guardian stopped to watch them.
Nearby she saw the big
smokestacks of care makers in Detroit.
As Lake Guardian cruised along, she started talking with a walleyed
pike named Wally. Wally
thought it was great that Lake Guardian was working so hard to
gather information to help keep the Great Lakes clean. He asked Lake
Guardian if she was going to talk with the mayflies. Lake Guardian
didn't know what a mayfly was. "You have to meet the mayflies,"
exclaimed Wally, "They're famous! Mayflies are insects that live in
the water, and they do not like water pollution at all. If you find
mayflies, you know the water must be clean and healthy because
mayflies just can't live there unless it is. Their homes must be
cool with lots of oxygen." Wally told here how scientists keep track
of how many mayflies there are because it helps them know whether
the water is clean or not. Many schools and their students volunteer
to count mayflies in streams, creeks, and lakes newer their homes to
help. When the
number of mayflies gets too low, it tells the scientists that there
may be a problem with too much pollution in the water. Wally
explained, "Mayflies are famous in Lake Erie because they let
everyone know that Lake Erie was very sick in the 1960s. Boy, was
that a bad time for all of us. I lost a lot of my family back then.
Someone noticed that there weren't very many mayflies left, and that
was when all the human beings
realized that they had to start taking care of Lake Erie if they
wanted it to provide them with good water, fish, and everything
else." Lake Guardian was glad to hear that people were working to
keep Lake Erie clean, but she knew her job was to investigate more.
Lake Guardian decided to continue here journey around Lake Erie on
the southern shore, starting
with Toledo, Ohio. Toledo was famous for the beautiful, it still was
a concern of Lake Guardian's. She stopped to count the mayflies and
study how much pollution was being given off by the big glass
factories. She continued on to Cleveland, where there are lots of
factories making steel and cars. Lake Guardian wanted to look for
mayflies here too. Wally explained that industries like the one
making steel, cars, and glass get very hot when they melt the glass
and steel to make cars and windows. They use
the water to cool off the steel and glass, which means that they let
off lots of warm water into the lake. This is bad for the mayflies
because they need cool water to live, as do many other plants and
animals.
Lake Guardian crossed the Lake to look at the beautiful northern
shore of Lake Erie and its
farmlands. Lots of sheep and lambs are raised in Canada near Lake
Erie, and Lake Guardian wanted
to visit them before she made her way to Lake Ontario.
Story Highlights |
Mayflies:
Mayflies are excellent indicators of water quality because they
are not tolerant of pollution. Monitoring programs in some Great
Lakes states use mayflies as one of several indicators of
pollution-free water.
Mayflies are aquatic insects with six legs and three body
parts typical of insects, as well as two short antennae.
Females deposit their eggs into clear running streams
and lakes singly or in strings, depending upon the species.
Nymph hatch from the eggs and remain in shallow water
or burrow beneath the mud and gravel, feeding upon
aquatic plants. When ready to leave the water, they swim
to the surface and molt, emerging in adult form. At this
point, they are called "duns" and are not yet sexually
mature. They crawl into nearby vegetation and wait from
several hours to a few days for a final shedding of the
exoskeleton and emerge as full-fledged adults. On a still
sunny day, males wing upward and float down over and
over again. Females join the swarm and find a mate and clay eggs in the water, beginning the cycle anew.
Hot Spots: 11
Clinton River, Rouge River, River Raisin, Maumee River, Black River, Cayahoga River, Ashtabula River, Wheatley
River, Buffalo River, Detroit River, Niagara River.
Vocabulary |
exoskeleton |
monitor |
factory |
nymph |
hot water emissions |
oxygen |
industry |
steel |
mayfly |
walleye pike
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