PUT-IN-BAY, OHIO Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory, along with education partners across South Bass Island, will host Lake Erie Awareness Day on Aug. 8, 2024 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. at eight locations, including the South Bass Island Lighthouse, Oak Point State Park, Put-in-Bay Chamber of Commerce, Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, Cooper’s Woods Preserve, the Lake Erie Islands Nature and Wildlife Center, and South Bass Island State Park.
This free, family-friendly event will highlight the cultural and historic significance of the islands, address pressing environmental issues such as aquatic invasive species and plastic pollution, draw attention to land conservation efforts, showcase island wildlife, and create more awareness of aquaculture and safe and clean boating programs. Island residents, families, and visitors are encouraged to attend. More information about the event, including station locations, is available at go.osu.edu/LakeErieAwarenessDay.
Event attendees will learn about Lake Erie environmental issues from a variety of different organizations present at the event, such as the Ohio Clean Marinas Program.
Event attendees can spend the day touring South Bass Island while learning about Ohio’s greatest water resource and visiting education stations to learn about island history, native plants and animals, the dangers of plastic pollution, and boating safety. The event is hosted by a partnership between Ohio Sea Grant, Stone Laboratory, the Ohio Clean Marinas Program, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Lake Erie Foundation, the Great Lakes Island Alliance, the National Park Service, H2Ohio, the Lake Erie Islands Nature and Wildlife Center, Eriesponsible, the Lake Erie Islands Conservancy, The University of Toledo Lake Erie Center, and the Put-in-Bay Chamber of Commerce. Funding support comes from the Center for Great Lakes Literacy and donation of island maps comes from Put-in-Bay Official Tourism Bureau.
“We are very excited to be hosting the fourth annual Lake Erie Awareness Day,” says Tory Gabriel, Ohio Sea Grant’s Extension program leader. “Every year we welcome more residents and visitors to this day of fun, education, and stewardship and we thank our many education partners who help make this day possible.”
A special treat for this year’s event will be trash removal technology demonstrations using Pixie Drone at the Bathing Beach. The Pixie Drone is a floating, remote-controlled, mobile waste collector. The Pixie Drone targets floating waste in all forms: organic, plastic, glass, metal, paper, rubber, etc. This drone can be operated in salt, fresh, and brackish waters.
The event will feature fun giveaways and a great day in nature! Go to all the stations and be entered to win a fabulous island themed prize.
Calen Campbell, Stone Lab biological field station assistant, holds a Lake Erie watersnake at the event in 2023. Attendees had the opportunity to interact with island wildlife.
Since April 2022, Meijer has donated $1.5 million to The Council of the Great Lakes Region’s (CGLR) charitable arm to clean up Midwestern beaches and waterways with the purchase and use of the BeBots and Pixie Drones. In August 2022, Meijer officially launched its participation in the Great Lakes Plastics Cleanup Program with the use of the two innovative technologies. The retailer’s initiative supports the single largest deployment of these types of eco-friendly and remote-controlled devices across multiple states in the Great Lakes.
About Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory
Ohio Sea Grant is supported by The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University Extension, and NOAA Sea Grant, a network of 34 Sea Grant programs nation-wide dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. Stone Laboratory is Ohio State’s island campus on Lake Erie and is the research, education, and outreach facility of Ohio Sea Grant and part of CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources.
About Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR)
CGLR, comprised of CGLR Canada, the CGLR Canada Foundation, CGLR USA, and the CGLR Foundation, is a network of charitable and non-charitable organizations in the binational Great Lakes – St. Lawrence region focused on accelerating the transition to a sustainable future by uniquely bringing diverse perspectives and interests together to explore and solve our most pressing socioeconomic and environmental challenges as one North American Great Lakes region. Through its work, CGLR is striving to create the first sustainable region in the world.
About the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup
The Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup, an initiative of the Council of the Great Lakes Region and Pollution Probe with support from a network of funders and collaborators, uses innovative plastic capture technology to quickly capture and remove plastics and other litter from Lake Ontario to Lake Superior and everywhere in between and is one of the largest initiatives of its kind in the world. Through research, outreach and education, the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup is gathering data on litter entering our waterways and identifying how government, industry, and consumers can work together to reduce, reuse and recycle material waste.