By Steve Murch (The Alpena News)
ALPENA - Two area woman will be taking part in a Great Lakes-wide project on Saturday to clean up the lakes and to prevent marine debris and plastic from entering the Great Lakes.
Stephanie Gandulla, media coordinator and maritime archaeologist at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and Meaghan Gass, network coordinator with the Northeast Michigan Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative, will be taking part in eXXpedition Great Lakes 2016. They will be at Mich-e-ke-wis Park from 2-3 p.m. and are asking that anyone who would be interested in helping with the beach cleanup join them.
"This event highlights what we can do in our local community to research and raise awareness about the impact of marine debris. Even completing a beach cleanup can help protect our Great Lakes from the impact of plastic pollution," Gass said. "We are hoping for a great community turnout for this event."
After the beach cleanup, Gandulla and Gass will take part in a trawl for microplastics out of Presque Isle Harbor.
"We wanted a place that is well visited, well loved and gets lots of people," Gandulla said of the cleanup at Mich-e-ke-wis. "Presque Isle is a beautiful area. There are a lot of dive charters and charter fishing boats that head out of there."
eXXpedition Great Lakes 2016 is part of a global effort that had its first cleanup efforts in 2014. It began as an idea in 2011 by Lucy Gilliam and Emily Penn to have an all-women voyage to research plastics and toxins. This is the third year of projects, each all-female led, and there are three of them this year - the Arctic, Great Lakes and Caribbean...