Whenever you make a jaunt out to L1 during the warmer months, chances are quite good that you’ll see one or more of these loyal lakegoers within the vicinity. They maintain an unofficial vigilance over our beloved swimming site, and they’re always ready to offer friendly greetings or a pleasant conversation.
In short, they’re great fellows who have fascinating stories to tell. And I always enjoy seeing them out at L1 because they personify everything that’s great about summer in Chicago!
So in this spirit, I’d like to hand out some honorary Lake Monster numbers to the real “beach boys” of L1. Dave had some shots of the group taken last week, so I’ll post a few below with some details:
Left to right:
Diver Dave - #21 (Ice Monster #1!) Dr. Pete – #146 2-Liter Pete – #147 Paul (The Chairman) – #148 Dave (Paul’s son) – #149 Freddy - #150 Danny - #27 Jules (seated) – #151
Before we became a wussified and hyper-litigious society, you could actually spring off of diving boards into Lake Michigan. Here is all that remains of a diving board down at 51st Street that used to provide all sorts of joy and mischief for kids of all ages:
It was hard to get going yesterday morning. These early autumn days seem more like mid-November than late September. But I was up by 7am, hammering away at the keyboard with the aid of some very strong black coffee, when I heard this god-awful screeching outside of my window.
I tried to ignore it at first, but it just intensified. Then I realized that this was some animal in serious distress. An utterly terrified, life-or-death type of distress. So I went to the window to investigate.
Three crows had surrounded a shrieking animal in the empty lot adjacent to my building and were taking their turns pecking and tearing away at it. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but it sure was “down for the count.”
Three against one? That’s hardly fair. So I decided to go out there and see what all the fuss was about…
I approached the crime scene and shooed away the trio of surprisingly large and menacing crows. They scattered away as I advanced, but they hovered closely in the nearby trees, cackling indignantly and fixing me with their baleful stares.
I wasn’t quite prepared for what I saw:
Hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus) are the most widespread bat species in the Americas. Their habitat includes most of North America from north-central Canada and extends south all the way to Central America.
Hoary bats are solitary forest dwellers that prefer evergreen trees to deciduous environments. They are nocturnal hunters who feed on insects during the evening and spend their days roosting in a torpor high above the ground. This explains why hoary bats – although quite abundant and widespread – rarely come into contact with humans.
So how did this one end up as midday crow fodder?
There are several possibilities. First, many hoary bats migrate long distances in the fall, spending the winter in the warmer regions of sub-tropical or tropical America. Apparently, it’s not that unusual for these bats to become quite exhausted from flying and fall out of their roosts onto the ground. And even if they manage to stay in the trees during the day, they are quite easily exposed to predation. This is especially the case with juveniles or young adults. And give the smaller size of this hoary bat (3-4 inches), I suspect he is still technically a “minor.”
So it’s quite likely that our little hero was unfortunately literally caught napping by some very hungry crows who frequent that empty lot.
The second possibility, while very remote, is a bit less innocent. In general, bats are not dangerous. But like any other mammal, they can carry rabies. And even though less than 1% of all bats are infected with the virus, hoary bats tend to have a higher incidence of the disease given that they sometimes prey on other bats.
So whatever happened to the bat, you might ask?
Well, I couldn’t just let him get torn apart by the crows. So I placed him in a box using some heavy winter gloves. He had calmed down considerably at that point, but I could tell that he was still in pretty bad shape. His left wing was somewhat misshapen, and from the look of things he had taken a number of very unkind jabs to the midsection from the three crows.
The little fellow slept very soundly for all of yesterday afternoon and was still in a tranquil slumber when I returned home in the early evening. He had even climbed up onto a bamboo lid I had placed in his temporary home and was roosting upside down on one leg.
Unfortunately, he didn’t make it though the night. He passed quietly in his sleep and – from the look of things – quite peacefully.
I contacted animal control this morning, and they came to take him away. The animal control officer had never seen a hoary bat, so I explained to her what it was. We both commented on how rare and unique it was to see such an animal.
But apparently they’re quite common. And as you walk underneath the trees this time of year, they’re probably right above you.
Double-crested cormorants are large waterbirds whose summer habitat includes lakes and inland waterways. They’re quite widely distributed across North America, ranging from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska down to Florida and Mexico.
Like other cormorants, they primarily eat fish which they hunt by swimming and diving. And they’re definitely built for speed and efficiency in the water. As you can see, this one moves quite nimbly when going after his prey:
Cormorants have a short, stocky body with webbed feet and a very long neck. This enables them to quickly dart through the water in pursuit of smaller fish, which they snatch with a small hook on the end of their beaks.
Here’s a shot of our friend again just after snaring a juicy morsel:
But his success as an aquatic hunter is not always welcome among many Great Lakes residents. Cormorants are voracious consumers of bait fish such as round gobies. This has adversely impacted the perch, walleye and bass populations – much to the chagrin of sport fisherman throughout the region.
And to add insult to injury, cormorants are notoriously noisy and destructive wherever they establish their highly populated breeding grounds. This has led to increasing efforts to cull the cormorant population in several parts of the Great Lakes basin.
But even if you’re not a fan of our new visitor, you can’t help but admire his talents. In fact, when you see him in action, he looks like a throwback to some prehistoric time when real lake monsters once had free reign over the large inland sea that covered most of North America.
And when you look at his skeleton, you’re even more tempted to think that they still exist:
The former “Green Town, IL” (a.k.a. Waukegan) resident and master storyteller is 90 years young today!
When I was a boy in the Midwest I used to go out and look at the stars at night and wonder about them.
I guess every boy does that.
When I wasn’t looking at the stars, I was running in my old or my brand-new tennis shoes, on my way to swing in a tree, swim in a lake, or delve in the town library to read about dinosaurs or time machines.
I guess every boy has done that, too…
The stars are yours, if you have the head, the hands, and the heart for them.
There is a swim ban this weekend at all Chicago beaches due to “water quality issues.” This is because the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) opened the Wilmette and Chicago River locks at 2:30am on Saturday morning and released large quantities of sanitary sewage diluted in part by the sudden influx of stormwater.
Let’s examine how the sewage got there in the first place.
Chicago has what’s known as a combined sewer system. Under this design, all of the sanitary sewage as well as any incoming stormwater eventually makes its way to a shared outfall pipe or reservoir:
(Source EPA)
In contrast, many municipal sewer systems constructed after WWII collect and drain stormwater in drainage lines which do not mix with the sanitary sewage drainage systems. These are appropriately termed separated sewage systems:
(Source EPA)
As the first image indicates, sudden and heavy rainstorms can very often deluge a combined sewer system with excess stormwater. When this happens, the combined sewer overflows (CSOs) can overwhelm the shared outfall pipes and reservoirs and cause unwanted flooding and “backups” in both the sanitary sewage lines as well as the storm drain systems:
To prevent these occurrences – or to at least mitigate them – the city of Chicago and the MWRD designed and developed the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan, a.k.a. the “Deep Tunnel.” Commissioned in the mid-1970′s and still under construction, the TARP is essentially an expanded reservoir system for CSOs that take place during heavy rainfalls.
Unfortunately, an especially heavy rainstorm will still occasionally overwhelm the TARP.
When this happens, the MWRD will divert the excess CSOs to any number of permitted outfalls – most of which empty into the Chicago River, the Calumet River, and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.
However, under sustained storm conditions, CSOs from these permitted outfalls can actually overwhelm these river and canal systems as well. Under this scenario, the MWRD will open one or more of the river locks such as the Chicago Harbor lock, the Wilmette lock, or the O’Brien lockin order to prevent flooding.
And when these locks are opened, CSOs (combined sewer overflows) enter Lake Michigan and contaminate the water.
The good news is that this doesn’t happen very often. And theoretically, this shouldn’t take place at all once the TARP is fully completed and operational by 2019 (estimated).
I know, short notice – but it would be great to see you guys. The gallery was going to close, but ran into some money last week! The show must go on!
Attached and below is show information that features Artwork by Midwestern Surfers (and Chicago Surfrider Members) Mike Killion, Jason Lukas and Jack Flynn.
Saturday March 27
6:30pm – 11 pm
Barbara and Barbara Gallery
1021 N. Western Ave, Chgo 60622
Our Chicago Surfrider Chapter will have a table on site to pass out info and spread the good word!
Please spread the word and come out to show your support!
Thanks!
Jack
It looks pretty cool. Check it out! (Click image for larger pic)
Believe it or not, at one point we had three nuclear missiles deployed on our lakefront right in the midst of some very densely populated areas.
It all began in 1957 during the height of the Cold War. At that time, the greatest perceived threat to the U.S. was a nuclear attack from Soviet bomber planes flying over our cities. To counter this threat, the U.S. military deployed the Nike-Ajax – and then later the Nike-Hercules – surface to air missile systems (SAMs) at numerous locations throughout the country to serve as a protective shield against such an attack. These missiles actually contained nuclear warheads and were designed to obliterate clusters of enemy bombers through an atomic air burst.
As the Cold War raged on, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union developed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) which could be launched from distances greater than 3,500 miles (5,500 km). Both superpowers, in turn, developed ICBMs which could (in theory, at least) intercept incoming enemy ICBM strikes.
All these developments essentially made the Nike-Hercules missiles obsolete. So these sites were deactivated, and the missiles were removed in the 1970′s. But until that point, the city of Chicago had Nike-Hercules missiles deployed at Belmont Harbor, Burnham Park, and Jackson Park.
This particular site was right in my neighborhood near the Belmont exit off of Lake Shore Drive (the photo says Montrose Beach – which was where the control center was located – but the actual missile was farther south at Belmont):
There was also one deployed just south of McCormick Place and a third one in Jackson Park. In fact, the radar towers for the Jackson Park site were located on Promontory Point, one of our sister swim sites:
For a more detailed look at the Chicago Nike-Hercules missile sites, be sure to check out Michael Epperson’s site (where I got the images).
And while this is now all just a historical footnote, we could have experienced this right on our lakefront during the Cold War!
Today I attended a subject matter hearing at the Thompson Center regarding the Asian carp issue. Moderated by Illinois State Senator Susan Garrett and Senate Environment Committee, the hearing featured presentations and discussions by the following organizations and panelists:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Colonel Vince Quarles (Commander of the Chicago District) The Nature Conservatory: Lindsay Chadderton (Aquatic Invasive Species Director) Illinois Department of Natural Resources: Marc Miller (Director), John Rogner (Assistant Director) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Bill Bolen (Great Lakes National Program Office) Metropolitan Water Reclamation District: Ed Stadacher (Waterways Operations) Alliance for the Great Lakes: Joel Brammeier (President) Illinois Commercial Fishing Association: Kirby Marsden (President) Schafer Fisheries: Mike Schafer (Owner)
__________
The hearing also had a short “Open Forum” section featuring the following additional stakeholder organizations and representatives:
Metropolitan Planning Council: Josh Ellis Natural Resources Defense Council: Henry Henderson (Director) Sierra Club: Jack Darin (Director)
__________
There was a lot of really good, in-depth discussion on the current status of the Asian carp threat and what might happen in the future were it to successfully establish a presence in the Great Lakes. I’ll try to distill the key points of the hearing down to the essentials. So here goes…
1) There are two non-indigenous “Asian Carp” species that threaten the Great Lakes – the bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) and the silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix).
Both of these species are native to the large rivers and associated floodplain lakes of Northern and Eastern Asia (primarily China), and both feed by filtering plankton from the water. Because they are so good at this, the bighead carp and silver carp were imported to the U.S. in the 1970′s to help control algae growth and improve water quality in sewage treatment plants and aquaculture facilities. The silver carp is infamously known as the “jumping carp” due to its proclivity for leaping out of the water when startled.
2) The bighead carp is already in the Great Lakes.
Bighead carp have been reported in Lake Erie as early as 1995. Since then, other large adult bighead carp have been either captured or spotted in Lake Erie. However, there is no indication that they have established a breeding population (more on that below). Here is a very recent map by the U.S. Geological Survey indicating the current territory of the bighead carp.
3) The Illinois River is heavily infested with both bighead carp and silver carp – and there is pretty strong evidence that they are both very close to entering Lake Michigan through the Chicago water system.
The fish kill conducted last December in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal uncovered the presence of a bighead carp near the Lockport dam. However, environmental DNA (eDNA) testing of the Chicago waterways has indicated the potential presence of both bighead and silver carp as far up as Calumet Harbor and the Wilmette Pumping Station. Previous tests had only indicated a positive presence of the Asian carp eDNA as far upstream as the Calument Sag Channel:
The eDNA findings are significant. The tests are designed to detect the specific cellular debris (mucus, feces, urine, and remains) of only the bighead carp and the silver carp. And more importantly, ratios of eDNA between the two species varies by the location tested. This makes it highly unlikely that the eDNA was carried upstream in the ballast water of barges.
4) If either or both Asian carp species enters Lake Michigan via the Chicago waterways, they may or may not be able to develop a self-sustaining population.
This is the wildcard issue that we cannot yet address with 100% certainty. Both the silver carp and the bighead carp are certainly quite capable of surviving in the Great Lakes. In their natural setting, both species are big lake fish. However, both species need river systems to reproduce successfully. And therein lies the rub.
Both Asian carp species rely on long stretches of river currents (up to 100 kilometers) to keep their eggs in suspension during spawning. Without such currents, the eggs sink to the riverbed (or lake bed) and become inviable. So even if the bighead carp and silver carp manage to invade Lake Michigan, it is questionable as to whether the water dynamics of the Great Lakes can provide such lengthy and constant currents.
Nevertheless, these two carp species are quite adaptable. Despite being lake fish by preference, both the bighead carp and silver carp can live in slower moving rivers or in low velocity habitats in rivers. And they can also adapt to – and thrive in – large lakes with limited river systems feeding into them.
Hungary’s Lake Balaton is often cited as a comparable case study for what we might see in the Great Lakes. Lake Balaton is a fresh water lake about 1/5 the size of Lake Erie with a similar climate and water chemistry. The silver carp was introduced into Lake Balaton in 1972 and has since become a thriving, self-sustaining species – all without needing 100 kilometers of free flowing, undammed river water to reproduce.
So where do we go from here?
As you can see, this is not an easy issue to address. And there’s millions of dollars on all sides of the issue at stake which further complicate us finding a simple and elegant solution.
Many conversationalist groups advocate sealing off the canal system altogether and restoring the Chicago water system to its natural pre-canal ecosystem. But these ideas are quickly dismissed as unfeasible by the water reclamation district which warns of catastrophic flooding and water contamination that might result.
And while these various stakeholders polemic their respective causes, the INDR and USACE keep stepping up their efforts to contain the silver carp and bighead carp before they breach the electric barriers – provided they haven’t done so already.
So I’ll continue to stay on top of this and keep you all informed on any new updates as I hear about them. In the meantime, my recommendations would be to heed the timeless wisdom of Douglas Adams – Don’t Panic.
