Although 15 teachers went aboard the R/V Lake Guardian to learn last month, at least one group of them ended up helping the instructors who were there to teach them more about aquatic research, and they aided a Wisconsin Sea Grant project to boot.

With all the work going on to restore habitat in the St. Louis River Estuary, organizations would be remiss if they didn’t also address a man-made killer that lurks there: monofilament fishing line. That’s just what the St. Louis River Alliance of Duluth, Minn., is doing.

A public safety project designed to prevent kayaking tragedies at the popular mainland sea caves in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore has been turned over by the University of Wisconsin-Madison to the National Park Service and several partners. SeaCavesWatch.org is a real-time wave observation system that provides webcam photos and wave height, water temperature and wind speed data to kayakers, who can access the website before venturing out on Lake Superior to the sea caves.

Wisconsin Sea Grant’s first-ever social scientist, Jane Harrison, is leaving to join North Carolina Sea Grant’s staff.

The Wisconsin Water Library is a wonderful asset to Wisconsin Sea Grant and, in turn, the library celebrates some of Wisconsin’s water assets through a new video.

A team of UW-Green Bay researchers is charting the nearshore linkages between coastal wetlands and sports fish.

A joint Wisconsin/Minnesota Sea Grant-funded research project on the St. Louis River Estuary has found a surprising result. The two-year study, which involved several researchers, looked into nutrient levels and water chemistry in the estuary. When it comes to nitrogen removal in the water, the estuary seems to be working backwards.

Michelle Howe, a science teacher at Lodi Middle School, will participate in a unique opportunity to study Lake Michigan. During July, Howe will join 14 other teachers on the Lake Guardian, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s research vessel for the week-long Shipboard and Shoreline Science Workshop.

The next monthly River Talk is scheduled for Wed., June 10, 5:30 p.m. at Amazing Grace Cafe (394 S. Lake Ave., Duluth, Minn.) Julie Gard, assistant professor of writing at the University of Wisconsin-Superior and photographer Ava Battocchio will present, “Pollution, Poetry and Photography: Celebrating the River’s Restoration Through Words and Images.”

Sea Grant climate change educators in the Great Lakes states have taken a tool developed in Mississippi-Alabama and adapted it for communities along the shores of our freshwater seas to use in preparing for the impacts of weather disruption.