Many of our coastal wetlands have been permanently lost. But how are we doing with protecting what we have? Reporting the percentage of Great Lakes coastal wetlands that are protected can help focus efforts to preserve them where they are most needed.
This metric shows the percentage of wetlands protected at a glance, to highlight progress to-date and where we can do more.
Amphibians (mostly frogs and toads) are intimately connected to water, literally able to breathe underwater through their skin. With this close association with water, they are especially sensitive to changes in wetland habitats. A community of wetland breeding frogs can indicate that a wetland is healthy and functioning well.
If wildlife are thriving, then it follows that their homes must be in good shape. One way to track progress towards healthy wetlands is to look at wildlife that depend on wetlands. The first group is wetland breeding birds, or birds that must have wetland habitat for nesting and raising their young.
Tracking results of early detection efforts targeted toward aquatic plant species at priority sites across the Great Lakes Basin.
Hundreds of projects are funded with the goal of protecting, restoring or enhancing Great Lakes coastal wetlands. These investments are critical to supporting on-the-ground efforts to improve the extent, diversity and resiliency of coastal wetlands. But are these investments in coastal wetlands reaching enough area? Can funding be allocated more efficiently to ensure maximum impact?
In 2018, an estimated 193 different cruise itineraries and carried 177,000 cruise passenger across the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.
Over the past ten years, the tonnage of containerized cargo handled at Maritime Transportation System (MTS) ports has grown by 29%. In 2018, about 14.6 million metric tonnes of containerized cargo was handled at MTS ports. Currently, Montreal and Cleveland have regularly-scheduled container shipping services, and Montreal is the MTS’ main container terminal, handling 99% of the system’s containerized cargo.
The reliable and efficient operation of the locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway and at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (Soo Locks) is critically important to the movement of cargo on the Maritime Transportation System (MTS). The St. Lawrence represents the system’s connection to the world and the Soo Locks control the key connection point between Lake Superior and the rest of the MTS, enabling mined commodities including taconite to reach the steel mills and manufacturing plants in the southern portions of the MTS. The three lock-controlled sections of the MTS are shown on the map below.
Green Marine is a voluntary environmental certification program for the maritime industry which is endorsed by a wide range of environmental groups and governments, including the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Environmental Defense Fund. Program participants such as shipowners, ports, terminals, Seaway corporations, and shipyards benchmark their annual environmental performance through exhaustive self-evaluation guides, which cover 12 performance indicators.
The data below tracks the total tonnage and value of commodities shipped on the Maritime Transportation System between 2012 to 2018. The Maritime Transportation System includes the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway, and St. Lawrence River downstream to Les Escoumins, QC. The figures below illustrate how this cargo tonnage and value was broken down by different commodities. Changes in commodity tonnage handled and value of cargo reflect changing global and regional economic forces.
Tracking regional consistency in regulatory policies to restrict the sale, possession and transport of priority aquatic invasive species.
There are many contaminants that can affect source water quality, including the direct and indirect impacts of agricultural runoff, contaminants in permitted discharges, and incidental releases of oil or hazardous materials.