Generally, however, with the exceptions of the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812—which involved conflicts between the U.S.
and Canada have been remarkably friendly with an "unfortified boundary" and an agreement "that has kept all fleets of war off the Great Lakes." In 1837, rebellions broke about between Canadian settlers and the British Colonial government.
Later, there was a battle on the ice with the Royal 32nd Regiment, with the rebels being driven to retreat. Settlers established commercial fisheries on the north coast of the lake around the 1850s.
In 2007, the wreck of the steamship named after "Mad" Anthony Wayne was found near Vermilion, Ohio in of water; the vessel sank in 1850 after its boilers exploded, and 38 people died.
In the pre-Civil War years, railways sprouted everywhere, and around 1852 there were railways circling the lake.
It had sunk in 1852 after a collision with the steamship Ogdensburg, west of Long Point, Ontario, and survivors from Atlantic were saved by the crew of Ogdensburg.
His voyage was described in The New York Times: In 1885, lake winds were so strong that water levels dropped substantially, sometimes by as much as two feet, so that at ports such as Toledo, watercraft could not load coal or depart the port.
During the history of the lake as a fishery, there has been marked battling by opposing interest groups: Predictions of the lake being over-fished in 1895 were premature, since the fishery has survived commercial and sport fishing, pollution in the middle of the 20th century, invasive species and other ailments, but state and provincial governments, as well as national governments, have played a greater role as time went by.
The lab, which was established in 1895, is the oldest biological field station in the United States.
Jones filed the misdemeanor charges in district court, alleging violations of the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act. Cleveland's director of public utilities Ben Stefanski pursued a massive effort to "scrub the Cuyahoga"; the effort cost $100 million in bonds, according to one estimate.
Hanna, Dundee which sank north of Cleveland in 1900, F.
Business boomed; in 1901, the Carnegie Company proposed building a new harbor near Erie, Pennsylvania, in Elk Creek to accommodate shipments from its tube-plant site nearby.
In 1913, a memorial to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was built on Put-in-Bay island featuring a Doric column. During the Prohibition years from 1919 to 1933, a "great deal of alcohol crossed Erie" along with "mobster corpses" dumped into the Detroit River which sometimes washed up on the beaches of Pelee Island.
In 1913, a memorial to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was built on Put-in-Bay island featuring a Doric column. During the Prohibition years from 1919 to 1933, a "great deal of alcohol crossed Erie" along with "mobster corpses" dumped into the Detroit River which sometimes washed up on the beaches of Pelee Island.
In 2003, divers discovered the steamer Canobie near Presque Isle, which had sunk in 1921.
Stone Laboratory was donated to the Ohio State University by Julius Stone in 1925 as part of the university's Ohio Sea Grant College Program.
In 1913, a memorial to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was built on Put-in-Bay island featuring a Doric column. During the Prohibition years from 1919 to 1933, a "great deal of alcohol crossed Erie" along with "mobster corpses" dumped into the Detroit River which sometimes washed up on the beaches of Pelee Island.
In the winter of 1934, Lake Erie reached its lowest level at below datum.
Monthly low water records were set from July 1934 through June 1935.
Monthly low water records were set from July 1934 through June 1935.
Anglers target walleye and yellow perch, with some effort directed at rainbow trout. Up until the end of the 1950s, the most commonly caught commercial fish (more than 50% of the commercial catch) was a subspecies of the walleye known as the blue walleye (Sander vitreus glaucus) sometimes erroneously called "blue pike".
This problem was extreme in the mid and late 1960s, and the Lake Erie Wastewater Management Study conducted by the Buffalo District of the U.S.
There were sightings of a magnificent frigatebird, a tropical bird with a two-metre wingspan, over the lake in 2008. ====Water quality issues and restoration==== Lake Erie infamously became very polluted in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of the quantity of [industry] situated in cities on its shores, with reports of bacteria-laden beaches and fish contaminated by industrial waste.
But since high levels of pollution were discovered in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been continued debate over the desired intensity of commercial fishing.
This conflict is complex, dating from the 1960s and earlier, with the result in the United States that, in 2011, commercial fishing was mostly eliminated from Great Lakes states.
A report in Time magazine in 1969 described the lake as a "gigantic cesspool" since only three of 62 beaches were rated "completely safe for swimming". By 1975 the popular commercial fish blue pike had been declared extinct, although the declaration may have been premature.
The improved farming practices, which were voluntary, were followed for a while, resulting in remarkable recovery of the lake in the 1970s. The conservation practices are not monitored and have not been kept up.
There were sightings of a magnificent frigatebird, a tropical bird with a two-metre wingspan, over the lake in 2008. ====Water quality issues and restoration==== Lake Erie infamously became very polluted in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of the quantity of [industry] situated in cities on its shores, with reports of bacteria-laden beaches and fish contaminated by industrial waste.
The outlook was gloomy: In December 1970 a federal grand jury investigation led by U.S.
Mitchell gave a press conference December 18, 1970, referencing new pollution control litigation, with particular reference to work with the Environmental Protection Agency, and announcing the filing of a lawsuit that morning against the Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation for discharging substantial quantities of cyanide into the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland.
Coli contaminations, possibly caused by sewer water overflows after heavy downpours. Since the 1970s environmental regulation has led to a great increase in water quality and the return of economically important fish species such as walleye and other biological life.
The change toward cleaner water has been in a positive direction since the 1970s. There was a tentative exploratory plan to capture CO2, compress it to a liquid form, and pump it a half-mile (800 m) beneath Lake Erie's surface underneath the porous rock structure.
In the 1970s and 1980s, as pollution in the lake declined, counts of walleyes which were caught grew from 112,000 in 1975 to 4.1 million in 1985, with estimates of the numbers of walleyes in the lake at around 33 million in the basin, with many of or more.
But since high levels of pollution were discovered in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been continued debate over the desired intensity of commercial fishing.
Federal officials acted as well: the United States Congress passed the Clean Water Act of 1972, and the United States and Canada established water pollution limits in an international water quality agreement.
The 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement significantly reduced the dumping and runoff of phosphorus into the lake.
A report in Time magazine in 1969 described the lake as a "gigantic cesspool" since only three of 62 beaches were rated "completely safe for swimming". By 1975 the popular commercial fish blue pike had been declared extinct, although the declaration may have been premature.
In the 1970s and 1980s, as pollution in the lake declined, counts of walleyes which were caught grew from 112,000 in 1975 to 4.1 million in 1985, with estimates of the numbers of walleyes in the lake at around 33 million in the basin, with many of or more.
There was a report that charter boat fishing increased substantially on the American side, from 46 to 638 charter boats in operation in Ohio alone, during a period from 1975 to 1985 as pollution levels declined and after populations of walleye increased substantially in the lake.
There was substantial evidence that the new controls had substantially reduced levels of DDT in the water by 1979.
Cleanup efforts were described in 1979 as a notable environmental success story, suggesting that the cumulative effect of legislation, studies, and bans had reversed the effects of pollution: Joint U.S.–Canadian agreements pushed 600 of 864 major industrial dischargers to meet requirements for keeping the water clean.
By the 1980s, there were about 130 fishing vessels with about 3,000 workers, but commercial fishing was declining rapidly, particularly from the American side. ===Great Lakes Compact=== In 2005, the Great Lakes states of Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Canadian Provinces of Ontario and Quebec endorsed the Great Lakes-St.
In the 1970s and 1980s, as pollution in the lake declined, counts of walleyes which were caught grew from 112,000 in 1975 to 4.1 million in 1985, with estimates of the numbers of walleyes in the lake at around 33 million in the basin, with many of or more.
In 1984, Ohio sold 27,000 nonresident fishing permits, and sport fishing was described as big business.
In the 1970s and 1980s, as pollution in the lake declined, counts of walleyes which were caught grew from 112,000 in 1975 to 4.1 million in 1985, with estimates of the numbers of walleyes in the lake at around 33 million in the basin, with many of or more.
There was a report that charter boat fishing increased substantially on the American side, from 46 to 638 charter boats in operation in Ohio alone, during a period from 1975 to 1985 as pollution levels declined and after populations of walleye increased substantially in the lake.
In the summer of 1986, Lake Erie reached its highest level at above datum.
The high water records were set from April 1986 through January 1987.
The high water records were set from April 1986 through January 1987.
But the Lake Erie walleye was reportedly having record numbers, even in 1989, according to one report. There have been concerns about rising levels of mercury in walleye fish; a study by the Canadian Ministry of the Environment noted an "increasing concentration trend" but that concentrations were within acceptable limits established by authorities in Pennsylvania.
Because of these and other concerns, in 1990, the National Wildlife Federation was on the verge of having a "negative fish consumption advisory" for walleye and smallmouth bass, which had been the main catch of an $800 million commercial fishing industry. The longest fish in Lake Erie is reportedly the sturgeon which can grow to long and weight , but it is an endangered species and mostly lives on the bottom of the lake.
There were reports in 1990 of people seeing a "large creature moving in the water about from their boat" described as black in color, about long, with a snakelike head, and moved as fast as a boat.
One charter firm from western New York State takes about 1,500 divers to Lake Erie shipwrecks in a typical season from April through October. In 1991, the 19th-century paddle steamer Atlantic was discovered.
In western Pennsylvania, a wildlife reserve was established in 1991 in Springfield Township for hiking, fishing, cross-country skiing and walking along the beach.
In 1992, there were accounts of fishermen regularly catching walleye weighing up to .
One report suggests the oxygen-poor zone began about 1993 in the lake's central basin and becomes more pronounced during summer months, but it is somewhat of a mystery why this happens.
In southern Michigan, Sterling State Park has campgrounds, for hiking, biking, fishing, boating, with a sand beach for sunbathing, swimming, and picnicking. ====Biking==== In 1997, The New York Times reporter Donna Marchetti took a bike tour around the Lake Erie perimeter, traveling per day and staying at bed and breakfasts.
There was speculation that the sunken vessel had been a gambling ship, and therefore there might have been money aboard, but most historians were skeptical. In 1998, the wreckage of Adventure became the first shipwreck registered as an "underwater archaeological site"; when it was discovered that Adventure's propeller had been removed and given to a junkyard.
It is the shallowest of the Great Lakes with an average depth of 10 fathoms 3 feet or and a maximum depth of Because Erie is the shallowest, it is also the warmest of the Great Lakes, and in 1999 this almost became a problem for two nuclear power plants which require cool lake water to keep their reactors cool.
The warm summer of 1999 caused lake temperatures to come close to the limit necessary to keep the plants cool.
They mate from late May through early June and can be found in large mating balls with one female bunched with several males. ====Insects and birds==== In 1999, a local TV station's Doppler weather radar detected millions of mayflies heading for Presque Isle in blue and green splotches on the radar in clouds measuring long.
Since zebra mussels filter extra nutrients from the lake, it allows the mayfly larvae to thrive. There have been incidents of birds dying from botulism, in 2000 and in 2002.
A storm around Christmas in 2001 pounded Buffalo with of snow. The effects of the warmer lake water is reduced when the lake freezes over.
Long distance swimmers have swum across the lake to set records; for example, a 15-year-old amputee swam the stretch across the lake in 2001.
Since zebra mussels filter extra nutrients from the lake, it allows the mayfly larvae to thrive. There have been incidents of birds dying from botulism, in 2000 and in 2002.
During one storm in November 2003, the water level at Buffalo rose by with waves of for a rise of .
In 2003, divers discovered the steamer Canobie near Presque Isle, which had sunk in 1921.
By the 1980s, there were about 130 fishing vessels with about 3,000 workers, but commercial fishing was declining rapidly, particularly from the American side. ===Great Lakes Compact=== In 2005, the Great Lakes states of Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Canadian Provinces of Ontario and Quebec endorsed the Great Lakes-St.
In 2006, there were concerns of possible bird flu after two wild swans on the lake were found diseased, but it was learned that they did not contain the H5N1 virus.
But there has been no substantial progress on this issue since 2007. ==Economy== ===Fishing=== ====Species of fish==== Lake Erie is home to one of the world's largest freshwater commercial fisheries.
In 2007, one estimate of the total market for fishing in the Great Lakes, including commercial and recreational fishing, was $4 billion annually.
Cuts of 30 to 45 percent for certain fish were made in 2007.
In 2007, the wreck of the steamship named after "Mad" Anthony Wayne was found near Vermilion, Ohio in of water; the vessel sank in 1850 after its boilers exploded, and 38 people died.
Bush in September 2008.
In 2008 there were concerns that the "newest invader swarming in the Great Lakes", which was the bloody-red shrimp, might harm fish populations and promote algae blooms. Environmentalists and biologists study lake conditions via installations such as the Franz Theodore Stone Laboratory on Gibraltar Island.
Another report cites Ohio's Maumee River as the main source of polluted runoff of phosphorus from industries, municipalities, tributaries and agriculture, and in 2008, satellite images showed the algal bloom heading toward Pelee Island.
One account suggests that bird populations are in trouble, notably the wood warbler, which had population declines around 60% in 2008.
There were sightings of a magnificent frigatebird, a tropical bird with a two-metre wingspan, over the lake in 2008. ====Water quality issues and restoration==== Lake Erie infamously became very polluted in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of the quantity of [industry] situated in cities on its shores, with reports of bacteria-laden beaches and fish contaminated by industrial waste.
If their boat crosses the invisible border line in the lake, upon returning to the American shore, passengers need to report to a local border protection office. In 2008, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission tried stocking the lake with brown trout in an effort to build what's called a put-grow-and-take fishery.
In 2008, 14-year-old Jade Scognamillo swam from New York's Sturgeon Point to Ontario's Crystal Beach and completed the 11.9-mile (19.2-km) swim in five hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds, and became the youngest swimmer to make the crossing.
In 2009, there was a confirmed instance of a sturgeon being caught, which was returned to the lake alive, and there are hopes that the population of sturgeons is resurging. ====Commercial fishing==== Estimates vary about the fishing market for the Great Lakes region.
In a 2009 incident, warming temperatures, winds of and currents pushing eastward dislodged a miles-wide ice floe which broke away from the shore, trapping more than 130 fishermen offshore; one man died while the rest were rescued by helicopters or boats. ===Agriculture=== The lake's formerly more extensive lakebed creates a favorable environment for agriculture in the bordering areas of Ontario, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Occasionally there have been mass die-offs of certain species of fish, sometimes for reasons unknown, such as many numbers of rainbow smelt in May 2010. ====Invasive species==== The lake has been plagued with a number of invasive species, including zebra and quagga mussels, the goby and the grass carp.
As of the 2010s, much of the phosphorus in the lake comes from fertilizer applied to no-till soybean and corn fields but washed into streams by heavy rains.
By 2010, the water snake population was over 12,000 snakes.
In January 2011, for example, residents of Cleveland were glad when Lake Erie was "90 percent frozen" since it meant that the area had "made it over the hump" in terms of enduring repeated snowfalls which required much shoveling.
The largest Lake Erie blooms to date occurred in 2015, exceeding the severity index at 10.5 and in 2011 at a 10, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
This conflict is complex, dating from the 1960s and earlier, with the result in the United States that, in 2011, commercial fishing was mostly eliminated from Great Lakes states.
It kills fish and microscopic creatures of the lake's food chain and fouls the water, and may cause further problems in later years for sport and commercial fishing. Algae blooms continued in early 2013, but new farming techniques, climate change and even a change in Lake Erie's ecosystem make phosphorus pollution more intractable.
The largest Lake Erie blooms to date occurred in 2015, exceeding the severity index at 10.5 and in 2011 at a 10, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Blue-green algae, or Cyanobacteria blooms, were problematic in August 2019.
By August 12, 2019, the bloom extended for roughly 50 kilometres.
In early August, the 2019 bloom was expected to measure 7.5 on the severity index, but could range between 6 and 9.
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