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What are the big things in Lake Michigan?

Called water cribs, the imposing structures a couple of miles offshore are a key part of our drinking water infrastructure.



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Lake sturgeons are the biggest fish in the Great Lakes. And while individuals can pass the century mark, the species has been around since the days of the dinosaurs.

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The Lake Michigan shoreline feature the world's largest freshwater dunes drawing millions of visitors annually to the beaches, state and national parks. Lake Michigan is known for its excellent trout fishing including Chinook, Coho and Atlantic salmon as well as Rainbow, Brown and Lake Trout.

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The Great Lakes Biggest Predator Michigan's biggest predator in the Great Lakes is a Sea Lamprey. In the very famous words of Randy Jackson, it's going to be a no for me dawg.

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The Dewey Lake Monster, also known as the Sister Lakes Sasquatch, in Michigan folklore, is purported to be an ape-like creature, similar to descriptions of Bigfoot, that was allegedly sighted in the summer of 1964 near Dewey Lake and Sister Lakes in Dowagiac.

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Lake Michigan is generally clean and safe for swimming but it can become contaminated with harmful bacteria.

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The lake's formation began 1.2 billion years ago when two tectonic plates moving in opposite directions left a giant scar—an event now known as the Midcontinent Rift. Less than 15,000 years ago, melting glaciers filled the giant basin, and Lake Michigan came to be. The lake's maximum depth is 925 feet.

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Sea lamprey, snapping turtles, and blue-green algae are some of Lake Michigan's most pesky and dangerous creatures.

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At the bottom of Lake Michigan, you will find non-fish inhabitants of the lake, such as worms, mollusks, amphipods, and insect larvae. These small creatures provide food for non-native fish such as whitefish, round goby, and perch.

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In northeastern Ohio and Michigan folklore, Bessie is a name given to a lake monster in Lake Erie, also known as South Bay Bessie or simply The Lake Erie Monster.

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The Water Monster of Lake Erie Bessie, who is also called South Bay Bessie because of the location of the sightings, has been seen multiple times since the 1800's. It is said that she is covered in gray scales, has a large head, and is around 30 to 40 feet long.

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The United States Environmental Protection Agency, for example, describes them as “vast inland freshwater seas.” A seminal 2017 paper in Limnology and Oceanography, authored by some of the most influential researchers studying the lakes, also refers to them as 'inland seas.

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At 1,943 feet (592 meters), Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and one of the deepest in the world. The depths were first explored thoroughly in 1886 by a party from the U.S. Geological Survey.

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Dreyer is the only person who has swum the width of Lake Michigan between Wisconsin and Michigan, having swum from Two Rivers, Wisconsin, to Ludington, Michigan, in 1998. In the 2023 swim, he was attempting to beat his own record by swimming 25 miles further in the route from Milwaukee to Grand Haven.

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About 5,500 years ago, the level of the water surface in Lake Michigan was about 23 feet higher than today. At that time, the southern shore of Lake Michigan was in the early stages of forming the last of Indiana's shorelines—the Toleston Beach.

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Climate change is fueling more extreme Lake Michigan Water levels, along with stronger winds and heavier storms. These conditions exacerbate erosion, beach loss, and damage along the shore.

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Lake Michigan in particular is the roughest of the Great Lakes, and poses a major risk to those thinking of taking a dip.

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Due to their nature, Lake Michigan is a freshwater lake, so dolphins cannot survive here. The marine mammal, called the harbor seals, are only found in the Great Lakes, particularly in Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior.

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