Taking a trip to The Cleveland Boat & Waterfront Lifestyle Expo this year will support Lake Erie. Organizers of the event are featuring a Lake Erie Day on Jan. 19 to benefit The Ohio State University’s Ohio Sea Grant (OSG) College Program and Stone Laboratory. The Cleveland Boat & Waterfront Lifestyle Expo runs Jan. 16-25 at the I-X Center, 6200 Riverside Dr. in Cleveland.

Tentative plans for this one-day event include drawings for Lake Erie-related prizes and talks from OSG speakers:

• 12 p.m. Dave Kelch, OSU Extension Agent, Lorain County – "Lake Erie Shipwrecks and the new Shipwreck Website"
• 1 p.m. Dr. Jeff Reutter, Director, OSG and Stone Lab – "Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab: What We Do and How to Get Involved"
• 2 p.m. Kristin Stanford, Stone Lab researcher and Island Snake Lady from TV’s "Dirty Jobs" – "The Truth About Lake Erie Watersnakes"
• 3 p.m. Melinda Huntley, OSG Tourism Director – "You Thought you Knew Lake Erie: Birds, Beaches, and other Secrets to Explore"
• 4 p.m. Reutter – "Lake Erie: The Most Important Lake in the World"
• 5 p.m. Huntley – "You Thought you Knew Lake Erie: Birds, Beaches, and other Secrets to Explore"
• 6 p.m. Stanford – "The Background on the Watersnake Episode on ‘Dirty Jobs’"
• 7 p.m. Fred Snyder, OSG Extension Agent and Co-Leader – "Seasonal Fish Movements on Lake Erie"
• 8 p.m. Tory Gabriel, OSG Fisheries Program Coordinator – "Changing Tactics for Lake Erie Anglers"

One dollar from every admission sale will benefit the research, education, and outreach efforts of Ohio State University’s Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory, the nation’s oldest freshwater biological field station, located in Put-in-Bay on Gibraltar Island, OSU’s island campus on Lake Erie.

As the warmest, shallowest, and biologically most productive of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie is Ohio’s most valuable natural resource. More than 50% of all fish caught in the Great Lakes come from Lake Erie. The Ohio Sea Grant College Program, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, led the effort to create 10 artificial reefs to provide additional habitat for sport fish. These reefs, which dot the lake floor from Lorain and Cleveland, attract more than 60 times as many fish as the surrounding non-reef areas and pay for themselves 2.75 times each year.

Stone Laboratory itself was the base for the research that saved Lake Erie in the 1970s. Scientists working from the lab have been able to unlock the mystery of the Dead Zone-areas with little or no oxygen that occur in the summer months-and determine the cause of harmful algal blooms that affect fish and people alike.

"If you enjoy Lake Erie today, you benefit from the work of Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab," says Dr. Jeff Reutter, Director of the Ohio Sea Grant College Program. "This is your opportunity to give back to the lake and to students, the next generation of Lake Erie managers."