Our Great Lakes

About the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes basin, including the land that drains into the lakes, is one of the world’s great ecological systems. Its unique mix of water, soils, minerals, and climates supports a wide array of plants and animals. This ecosystem sustains the lives of 33 million people, shaping our health, culture, and recreation, and was responsible for our economic development. The region is tremendously diverse, ranging from the wild Lake Superior shorelines in the north to the big cities and industrial centers in the south. The economy of the Great Lakes basin is diverse, ranging from fishing and farming to automotive manufacturing, and from tourism to banking.

The Great Lakes - some vital statistics

• The five Great Lakes - Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario - hold one-fifth of the fresh water on the earth’s surface and 80 percent of the lake and river water in North America. Less than 1 percent of the water in the Great Lakes, however, is replaced each year by precipitation. • The Great Lakes basin, including the water and land area that drains into the lakes, covers 766,000 square kilometers (295,700 square miles). This area is bigger than Texas or any of Canada’s three Prairie provinces. • The shoreline of the five Great Lakes and the connecting rivers stretches for 17,000 kilometers (10,200 miles), long enough to reach nearly halfway around the world.

• The water of the Great Lakes flows from the middle of the continent to the Atlantic Ocean. • The lakes contain the world’s largest system of freshwater islands, some of which are refuges for rare and endangered species. • The basin includes parts of the province of Ontario and eight states - Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. • The region is home to 30 percent of Canadians and 10 percent of Americans. • About five million people fish in the Great Lakes.  •Close to one million boats, mainly pleasure craft, operate on the Great Lakes.

Great Lakes time line

1850–1880 - Primeval forests surrounding the Great Lakes are lost due to widespread logging. Severe erosion follows, resulting in rivers and streams being clogged with sediment. Water temperatures of once shaded rivers and streams increases making them unsuitable for some native fish. In addition, damming of rivers and streams prevents upstream passage of fish to spawning areas.

1900–1960 - Heavily settled and industrialized parts of the Great Lakes basin are degraded by pollution. The mix of fish and wildlife begins to change due to heavy fishing, toxic substances, and the impacts of non-native species such as the sea lamprey.

1909 - Canada and the United States sign the Boundary Waters Treaty and create the International Joint Commission to help them deal with transboundary water issues. In subsequent years, the commission is repeatedly asked to report on the state of the Great Lakes.

1954 - The two nations create the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to control sea lamprey and to foster good fisheries management in shared waters.

1959 - Opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway allows big ocean-going vessels into the Great Lakes. The result is an increase in trade, but in their ballast water many ships bring invasive, non-native species and discharge them with the water into the lakes.

1960s - A series of events focuses attention on the need to clean up the Great Lakes. These events include the “death” of Lake Erie because of phosphorus from detergents and sewage, and a fire on the oily surface of the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

1970s - Toxic chemicals found in Great Lakes fish and wildlife spark concerns for both ecosystem and human health. A number of substances, such as DDT, PCBs, and mercury, are banned or controlled.

1972 - First Canada–United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement leads to limits on phosphorus in detergents and a major expansion of sewage treatment systems.

1977 - Populations of bald eagles and double-crested cormorants start to recover as the levels of some toxic pollutants fall in the Great Lakes.

1978 - Second Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement deals more with toxic chemicals and sets a goal of protecting the entire ecosystem.

1980s and 1990s - The sustainable development approach brings governments, industries, and non-governmental organizations together to solve Great Lakes problems. Chemical pollution is reduced, but non-native species, such as the zebra mussel, continue to invade the lakes.

1987 - A protocol expands the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement to cover airborne fallout and contaminated runoff from land. Governments agree to launch Remedial Action Plans to clean up polluted areas and develop indicators of ecosystem health. They also commit to creating Lakewide Management Plans to identify and eliminate critical pollutants, such as mercury, PCBs, and dioxins, that threaten human and ecosystem health.

1994 - First SOLEC brings together scientists from around the region to develop reports on the health of the lakes. The first State of the Great Lakes report is published the following year.

1994 - Collingwood Harbour on Ontario’s Georgian Bay is the first polluted Area of Concern to be cleaned up and taken off the list of such areas, or “delisted.”

2002 - Presque Isle Bay on Lake Erie is the first U.S. Area of Concern to be declared in the recovery stage. Spanish Harbour in northern Lake Huron receives a similar status. In both cases, natural processes will deal with the low levels of pollutants that remain.

1997 - The Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy pledges collaboration among governments, First Nations and Tribes, and industries to work for the virtual elimination of persistent toxic substances resulting from human activities.

2003 - Severn Sound, also on Georgian Bay, is the second Area of Concern to be restored and removed from the list.

2004 - United States President George Bush signs Executive Order 13340, establishing a Cabinet level federal interagency Task Force and Workng Group. A effort to begin a Regional Collaboration of National of the Great Lakes is underway.

Definitions: Biological integrity - the ability to support and maintain a balanced, integrated, and adaptive biological system having the full range of form and function expected in the natural habitat of an area. Ecosystem - an area of air, land, and water in which living organisms, including humans, interact in a stable relationship. The Great Lakes basin ecosystem is made up of a mosaic of smaller ecosystems. Watershed - a region bounded by heights of land and draining into a watercourse or body of water.