Lake Michigan has the longest stretch from north to south of all the Great Lakes, giving it a very diverse climate, which allows for a wide variety of plant and animal species. The lake boasts a variety of natural habitats, including tallgrass prairies, wide savannas, and the world’s largest freshwater sand dunes.
Can you drink water from Lake Michigan?
However, despite its small size, the Illinois portion of the Lake Michigan watershed is home to half of the total population of Illinois and the lake itself is the largest public drinking water supply in the state, serving nearly 6.6 million people (of a total of over 10 million lake-wide).
What Makes the Great Lakes so special?
The Great Lakes and their connecting rivers and channels make up the largest fresh surface water system in the world. In fact, they’re so big that astronauts can see them from the moon! Located along the United States-Canada border, the Great Lakes cover more than 90,000 square miles of surface area.
Why is Lake Michigan popular?
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan has a rich maritime history and reaches the shores of Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois, standing out as the top waterfront attraction in Chicago. Lake Michigan has outstanding beaches and comprises about 35 miles of shoreline in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Why is Lake Michigan called the deadliest?
Researchers say it’s this state of complacency that causes many deaths in Lake Michigan…by drowning. The waves in Lake Michigan can get huge, and the power of these waves hitting a person can take you by surprise.
How deep is Lake Michigan?
Approximately 118 miles wide and 307 miles long, Lake Michigan has more than 1,600 miles of shoreline. Averaging 279 feet in depth, the lake reaches 925 feet at its deepest point.
What is biggest fish in Lake Michigan?
lake sturgeon
1. The biggest ever? The largest verified lake sturgeon on record was caught in Lake Michigan. It weighed 300 lbs.
Which Great Lake is the cleanest?
Lake Superior
Watershed’s surface: 209,000 square kms. Lake Superior is the largest, cleanest, and wildest of all the Great Lakes.
Are there sharks in the Great Lakes?
Sharks do not live in the Great Lakes, but many fishes are mostly drawn to this water body as their natural habitat.
Who owns Great Lakes?
The water in the Great Lakes is owned by the general public according to the Public Trust Doctrine. The Public Trust Doctrine is an international legal theory – it applies in both Canada and the United States, so it applies to the entirety of the Great Lakes.
Can you swim in Lake Michigan?
Swimming Safety Tips
Use caution when swimming in Lake Michigan. The bottom is uneven with holes and deep drop-offs. These inshore holes are very dangerous to small children and non-swimmers. The only beach with lifeguards is West Beach.
Is Lake Michigan water clean?
Lake Michigan has become dramatically clearer in last 20 years — but at a steep cost. Decades ago, Lake Michigan teemed with nutrients and green algae, casting a brownish-green hue that resembled the mouth of an inland river rather than a vast, open-water lake.
Has anyone swam across Lake Michigan?
It took six swimmers, seven crew members, 54 miles and 21 hours, but the “Epic Swim 2020” is complete. The group of swimmers, led by Jon Ornée, of Holland, swam a relay across Lake Michigan from Two Rivers, Wisconsin, to Ludington.
What is the dirtiest Great Lake?
Lake Erie
The most polluted Great Lake is Lake Erie.
How dirty is Lake Michigan?
Despite this, Lake Michigan is the most polluted of the Great Lakes, according to estimates by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Last year, nearly 22 million pounds of plastic were dumped into the Great Lakes — over half of which were dumped into Lake Michigan — according to estimates by RIT.
What predators are in Lake Michigan?
Non-native Chinook salmon and alewife are important components of Lake Michigan’s recent ecosystem and fishery, but not without challenges. In Lake Michigan, Chinook salmon are a dominant and generally mid-water predator whose diet consists mostly of alewives, a generally mid-water prey fish.
Are there whales in Lake Michigan?
For the record, again: There are no whales in the Great Lakes, right? “That is correct,” said Dave Caroffino, fisheries biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. “They’re a marine species.” Same with sharks.
What is on the bottom of Lake Michigan?
While scanning underneath the waters of Lake Michigan for shipwrecks, archeologists found something a lot more interesting than they bargained for: they discovered a boulder with a prehistoric carving of a mastodon, as well as a series of stones arranged in a Stonehenge-like manner.
How cold is the bottom of Lake Michigan?
Though a recent string of hot days has sent Lake Michigan’s surface temperature soaring, the effects don’t penetrate the water’s depths. A dive into the data shows that at bottom, Lake Michigan is a chilly 44.7 degrees, holding fairly steady compared with 44.1 degrees in 2019 and 44.9 degrees in 2018.
What lives at the bottom of the Great Lakes?
The organisms living on the bottom in shallow waters are the same kinds of snails, clams, worms, mayflies, and caddisflies found in most small lakes. The deep waters, however, are the realm of some organisms that are found only in the deep, cold lakes of the northern latitudes.
How deep do fish swim in Lake Michigan?
Both stocked fish and wild spawned lakers are caught. During the summer months most are caught in deep water 90 or more feet deep. There’s a special period in late April, through most of May they can be caught in water much shallower. Expect these fish to weigh from just under 10 pounds to over 20.