- [Anna] Coming up on "Great Lakes Now."

To stock the lakes with muskellunge, you need to you need to catch some muskellunge.

- We just spread out.

We have to have experienced netters on the boat because you only get one shot at 'em.

- [Anna] Making solar power in our gray Great Lakes winters.

- The ideal conditions are those clear skies, facing directly into incoming sunlight, but that doesn't mean that we can't generate in the winter.

- [Anna] And news from around the Lakes.

(upbeat music) (page whooshing) This program is brought to you by, The Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, The Charles Stuart Mott Foundation, Richard C. Devereaux Foundation for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV, the Polk Family Fund, DTE Foundation, and contributions to your PBS station from Viewers Like You, thank you!

(gentle music) (page swishing) - Hi, I'm Anna Sysling.

Welcome to "Great Lakes Now."

The Great Lakes are home to 177 species of fish, a number of which are stocked to maintain populations.

Among the largest and one of the most sought-after by anglers, is the muskie.

(page swishing) (gentle music) - [Nick] Reaching lengths of nearly six feet, muskellunge are one of the largest apex predators in the Great Lakes.

They are so prized that all the Great Lake states and the provinces of Ontario and Quebec raise and stock muskie.

- Things look very good, we got (dish tapping) more eggs than last year, if I had to guess.

- [Nick] Matt Hughes manages the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery in Mattawan, Michigan, where each year, they raise thousands of Great Lakes spotted muskies.

(gentle music) - Muskie are one of those species that struggles to reproduce naturally, primarily from spawning habitat, degradation by humans.

Unfortunately, most of the spawning habitat that they like is shallow water, weedy woody debris, and the first thing that homeowners do when they build a house on a lake is get rid of all that.

Install sea walls, remove weeds, remove all the wood, and that's all the habitat that these muskie need.

- [Nick] Hundreds of years of shoreline development have severely reduced the muskies' access to suitable spawning sites.

- Oh, oh boy, you gotta love that.

I was only two eggs off from my first count.

That's nice.

That means I don't have to do a third.

Our goal each year is to rear 40,000 fall fingerlings, and if it wasn't for our stocking efforts, then they wouldn't be there.

- [Nick] Muskie stocking has been going on for decades, but the program has had its challenges.

Before they started stocking, the Great Lakes spotted muskie, a strain found throughout the Great Lakes.

the Michigan Department of Natural Resources stocked thousands of Northern muskie, a strain normally only found in the northern regions of the lakes.

For decades, Northerns were stocked into inland lakes across the state, where many successfully breached containment dams and spread into other waters, and that created some concern.

(upbeat music) - We knew that they were getting over the dam and getting downstream, and now they were intermingling with Great Lake spotted muskie.

and there was a real potential for those fish to be spawning together.

And essentially, what might happen there is that it might mess up the native genetics of that spotted strain.

So at that point, we deemed the risk too high.

- [Nick] But before they could stock Great Lake spotted muskies, they needed to find an egg source.

- [Matt] We started looking around the state and ultimately, we landed on Lake Saint Clair and the Detroit River just because the sheer abundance of adult fish and the very pure genetics that it had.

(gentle music) - [Nick] Then they ran into another obstacle.

While the researchers had no problem netting the northern strain, the Great Lake spotted proved far more challenging.

Todd Somers manages the team tasked with catching adult muskie in the Detroit River.

- When we switched to the Great Lake strain and attempted to catch 'em with the same method, we weren't able to catch 'em.

The fish were a little bit net shy, if you wanna call it.

They wouldn't move into the system.

- [Nick] The researchers would have to try another approach to capture these fish.

They chose electroshocking.

- And the idea of it is we push electricity into the river stun the muskie, and that gives us seconds to collect them, to catch 'em.

And a lot of times, they're big powerful fish and we don't always get 'em.

We try to adjust the electricity level so that we aren't harming the fish in any way.

I would prefer to have 'em just tickled and we work for 'em and catch 'em versus them being hit really hard and not wake up for a long time.

You can actually hurt them if you use too much electricity.

So we're really careful.

- [Nick] Todd monitors the river daily and when the temperature reaches 58 degrees, the nighttime collections begin.

(rhythmic music) - Because we have 3 and 4 or five boats going out a lot of times in one evening, we just spread out.

One of the reasons why we electro fish at night as well, is visibility.

We can see the fish so much better than you can in the daytime.

We have to have experienced netters on the boat in order to collect them because you only get one shot at 'em.

- [Nick] The teams fish for several weeks, returning to the boat launch each night around midnight to measure, tag, and assess their catch.

Ripe adults, those ready to spawn are moved to a holding pin at a ratio of three males for every female.

Capturing enough females is one of the biggest challenges.

- [Todd] I think this is our 14th year.

We've captured close to 1,500 muskie.

We've never pre-caught a female.

(gentle music) - [Nick] By morning, the hatchery team arrives to collect eggs and milk from the pinned adults.

(rhythmic music) - [Todd] Go on.

- [Nick] Release the fish, and then transport the freshly fertilized eggs back to Wolf Lake.

(gentle music) 17 days later, the eggs will be almost ready to hatch.

But before they do, each family is placed in a shallow basin where the water temperature is gradually increased over the course of several hours, causing every viable egg to hatch.

- You're collecting eggs over a two week period of time, you're gonna have a pretty large size variation.

That's when it's important that those fish are the same size, otherwise, cannibalism will and does happen.

- [Nick] The threat of being eaten by their tank mates continues through the rearing process.

- [Matt] Muskie are, in my opinion, one of the most challenging species to rear.

They like a live diet.

If you get slightly behind in growth, you look pretty good to the others.

(water splashing) - [Nick] Around the end of July, the fingerlings are moved into large holding ponds outside where they can refine their hunting skills on minnows rather than each other.

- We're trying to get our fishes as big as we can in the growing cycle that we have.

We're achieving anywhere between 9 and 10 inches by that time period.

(gentle music) - [Nick] Fisheries managers across the state help prioritize where the fall fingerlings are stocked, but a small percentage remain at the hatchery until the following spring, when they are released into two specially designated inland lakes.

- [Matt] The main reason why we're creating inland brood lakes is because of the pure difficulties of trying to capture the right fish out in Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, we're talking thousands and thousands of acres.

- Brooded lakes are important because you don't have worse so much about disease, they can't take the chance of bringing any diseased fish to our hatchery.

- Hopefully by '26, '27 we'll be able to use the two inland lakes, you know, and get outta the lake.

St Clair - [Todd] Starting a new program takes time and it's been nice that we've had all the support for this many years for a native species.

(gentle music) (water bubbling) - For more about Great Lakes fish species visit GreatLakesNow.org.

If you live in the Great Lakes region, you know that sunshine is a rarity in the winter.

So how can you make solar power in our snowy climate?

That's what researchers in Michigan's Upper Peninsula are trying to find out.

(page swishing) To hit ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions, power providers are embracing solar energy, but in the Great Lakes region, we have winter.

Short days, gray skies, can you even make solar power under these conditions?

According to Dr. Ana Dyreson, Assistant Professor at Michigan Technological University, "Yes, you can."

- The ideal conditions for solar are those clear skies, solar panels facing directly into the incoming sunlight and moderate temperatures.

But that doesn't mean that we can't generate in the winter, right?

Even in overcast conditions, when the sun is, the direct sun is not available, you're still getting the reflectivity in the atmosphere and anything around you including snow.

So you are still getting some lower power output.

- [Anna] But here at the Michigan Tech Solar Regional Test Center near Houghton, Michigan, which is actually closer to the North Pole than it is to the equator, there's another obstacle, snow.

It doesn't take much to keep a solar panel from operating efficiently.

- You can still generate electricity with a small amount of snow on the panel, but after a couple of centimeters, the output will go essentially to zero.

- [Anna] And that's what Dyreson's team is studying: how do solar panels work in snowy climates and how can they be made to work better?

- And so we think that this kind of research into how to handle snow matters because we wanna get any electricity production that's available - [Anna] To get accurate information on how much snow is accumulating on the panels, the researchers have installed a variety of sensors throughout the regional tests center's solar systems, arrays of multiple solar panels working together to generate electricity.

- We don't want to touch this snow because right now there's an, this is an ongoing experiment and what's happening is we are measuring when the snow would slide off.

- [Anna] Ayush Chutani is a third-year PhD student and a member of Dyreson's research team.

His research is about optimizing the performance of single axis solar panels.

That is, solar panels that can tilt from east to west to follow the sun throughout the day.

He's working on an algorithm that helps single axis solar panels adjust their positioning so that the snow falls off.

- I want to shed snow off the panels by moving them and I want to know how much of the snow is on the panels at any given time.

So when we give it the the command to maximum tilt, snow might shed.

Or when there is a big storm coming in, we can give it a command to go to the maximum tilt position, which is like like either eastwards or westwards.

So there might not be as much of snow that can accumulate on the panels.

- [Anna] Winter's short days and gray skies mean that less sunlight is reaching the solar panels than in the summer.

But according to Ayush, "As long as some sunlight is available and the panels are clear of snow, electricity can still be generated.

In fact, the cold temperatures can even help."

- The colder it is outside, the better the efficiency for electricity generation on solar panels, because when solar panels generate electricity, they also heat up.

So we don't want too much heat.

That's why in desert areas, even though there is too much sun, but if they are like very hot, they will not be producing that much electricity.

They work in space, they work in Antarctica, there should not be snow on the panels.

So as long as your panels are clean, you can get good electricity.

- [Anna] This Regional Test Center is one of five sites in the US that are exploring how a variety of solar panel types operate in different climates.

It's here that Dyreson's team works with industry partners and Sandia National Labs to study questions about how solar panels operate in the winter.

- This is a excellent site that's already set up with meteorological equipment that is provided, and I can use those meteorological observations along with the equipment that I install.

We're adding these additional sensors for snow, ultrasonic sensor for the ground depth, a laser sensor for actually what's on the panels and a radar sensor for what is the type of snow that's currently falling.

- [Ayush] So on the top is the laser sensor.

What that laser does is measures how much is the thickness of this snow on the panels.

There's a camera that looks at the snow, always - [Anna] Having access to various types of solar technology has allowed Ana and Ayush to test how snow interacts with different types of solar panels.

In some cases, snow isn't necessarily a bad thing.

- So right now, as you can see, the snow is covering the panels.

So these panels are not generating any energy when they're covered with snow.

But the thing is, these panels are bifacial panels.

So as you can see, the backside is completely clean and they can generate electricity from the backside also.

And as you can see, the snow is very white, so it's highly reflective.

So for generating energy from the backside of the panel, snow is good.

Generating energy from the front side, snow is bad.

So it's kind of like a balance.

- [Anna] This test site is meant to mimic operations at large utility-scale solar facilities, facilities like those run by Consumer's Energy, one of the largest power utilities in Michigan, where Thomas Clark is the Executive Director of Clean Energy Project Development.

- Any utility-scale solar project is gonna be taking up hundreds to thousands of acres of land and there's gonna be panels all around.

So you can imagine trying to go through it manually to clear, that would be a tremendous amount of work.

So anything that's gonna reduce that work is gonna be helpful.

- [Anna] Thomas says that, "Because of snowfall and the shorter days, Consumer's Energy energy can see as much as 70% reduction in solar-generated electricity produced during the winter.

If the technology can be improved to operate better in snowy conditions, these changes would benefit both utilities and their customers."

- If we can reduce losses that occur in the winter due to factors that are within our control, then that enables us to maximize the production from the limited amount of sun we do see in the winter, and ultimately, drive down customer costs.

- [Anna] As the world transitions into a clean energy future, Thomas says that, "Any improvements to solar technology means good things for the accessibility of renewable energy."

- [Thomas] Solar is very important to the overall delivery of the clean energy plan and the country's ambitions to decarbonize the electric system.

We're excited about this transformation and look forward to all the innovations that are gonna help us deliver it.

- In early 2022, we aired a story we called "Shrinking Winter."

One of the takeaways from that story, the amount of Great Lakes ice cover is way down compared to just 50 years ago.

This year, we're having another warm winter, from ice fishing to snowmobiling to sled dog racing, events have been canceled around the region.

Bryan Mroczka is a physical scientist and meteorologist with the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

- Well, the current status of Great Lakes, ice coverage is very low.

We are sitting today, as of this morning, around 6% ice coverage.

Normally, we would be getting up towards 40, 45% range on average.

So we're way below that average value, at this point, in early February, and it's getting pretty late in the winter to make up some of those losses.

- [Anna] And it isn't just winter recreation that suffers.

- Wildlife is also highly impacted by low ice.

The Great Lakes are a very large ecosystem , all the way from the microbial up to, you know, your wolves and your mooses, we see a lot of impacts with microbial life here in in the Great Lakes that like to harbor their eggs in the ice and spawn young in the ice.

And so that's when the base of the ecosystem is struggling, it has ripple effects all the way up.

So that's definitely a concern.

- [Anna] And while our region has been talked about as a quote, "Climate Haven," we're clearly not immune to climate change.

- The Upper Midwest, the Great Lakes themselves, have seen some of the fastest warming winter temperatures in the United States since the early 1970s.

All areas are warming, but we have seen some of the greatest increase in temperatures, especially during the winter months.

So we're really feeling the brunt of the impacts from these warmer winters here in the Great Lakes.

We're seeing more and more years that are low ice years as we head through the decades.

And so those high ice here still occur and we will continue to see those into the future, But the likelihood of seeing a lower ice year, years like we're seeing right now are becoming more and more likely and more frequent.

(page swishing) - You can find out more about our change in Great Lakes winters at GreatLakesNow.org.

And now it's time for "The Catch" where we bring you new stories and events from around the Great Lakes.

The State of Michigan has set a goal to be carbon-free by 2040, but meeting that goal may involve a surprising solution, nuclear power plants on the state's lakes and rivers.

Sheri McWhirter covered the story for M Live.

- The state's Public Service Commission recently received an update on the draft report from nuclear industry consultants who said a new nuclear power station or nuclear power plants will be needed here in Michigan if we wanna meet the state's climate and energy goals.

- [Anna] The report concluded that, "While nuclear energy is extremely expensive, it can produce lots of energy without generating carbon emissions."

But Sheri says that, "The question of atomic energy's cleanliness isn't so straightforward."

- For many climate action advocates and even energy industry proponents.

yes, nuclear energy is clean energy, it comes without planet-warming carbon emissions.

But there are those in the environmental justice realm who have equally valid concerns about the harmful effects of uranium mining on those already marginalized communities, as well as concerns about nuclear waste, being so-called temporarily stored at power plants all over America.

But in terms of the legal definition, here in Michigan, according to a recently adopted law, yes, nuclear energy is defined as clean energy.

- [Anna] There are also economic considerations.

Nuclear plants are extremely expensive to build and maintain, but they can also create new revenue for the state and its residents.

- It could mean billions of dollars in economic benefits to revitalize the nuclear industry in Michigan.

There would be the value of the energy generated, you know, that itself, plus the taxes that the companies pay to local municipalities.

There would also be thousands of new and well-paid jobs.

- [Anna] So what's next for atomic energy in the state?

Sheri says, "There are a few things that could happen."

- [Sheri] I'd say first up, would be the ongoing efforts to get the 800 Megawatt Palisades Plant back up and running.

It would be the first time in the United States that a nuclear power plant that had begun decommissioning was ever returned into service.

But that's really just the start.

- [Anna] In the short-term, the consultants who authored the report will expand it based on public input and deliver the final draft to the Public Service Commission.

- They are expected to have a final draft back to the Michigan Public Service Commission in the coming months, and the legislature is expecting a report due back by the end of April.

So what lawmakers do with the information remains to be seen.

(gentle music) (page swishing) - [Anna] Researchers are exploring Lake Erie's harmful algal blooms as a potential source for life-saving pharmaceuticals.

Caitlin Looby has the story.

- Scientists are looking to Lake Erie and their algae blooms for possibly the next pharmaceutical drug because a lot of pharmaceutical drugs like anti-cancer drugs and antibiotics, they actually come from nature.

The researchers believe that because the cyanobacteria are so tightly packed together that this creates a lot of competition.

So the microbes basically produce toxins that can inhibit or kill each other.

So that's kind of why they think that there's a possibility that, you know, the next big pharmaceutical drug could be present in these algae blooms.

- [Anna] The scientists are from the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research and the University of Michigan.

They chase the algal blooms on Lake Erie from June through October.

- They'll go out once a month, and they'll collect water samples.

And something that I thought was really interesting is that these blooms, they're not the same throughout the entire summer.

So they're actually seasonal, and they change a lot throughout the course of the summer.

So they go out at different times, just to kind of improve their chances that they may find something interesting.

- [Anna] Two of the researchers have found an anti-cancer drug in marine life from the Caribbean, but not much research has been done to look for similar drugs in the Great Lakes - So far, the researchers have told me that their findings have been promising, but they've also cautioned that it takes a really, really long time to find a promising drug candidate.

The scientists mentioned that they didn't believe that a pharmaceutical drug has been found before in the Great Lakes, and it really seems to be a new frontier that scientists as well as some folks in industry, are looking into.

- [Anna] While the potential for lifesaving medication is a good thing, Caitlin warns that, "At the end of the day, Lake Erie's algal blooms do more harm than good to people and the environment."

- The harmful algae blooms are really problematic.

They're harming ecosystems, they're threatening drinking water, so I wouldn't say it's a silver lining, but I would say that it's a great example about how knowledge is really all around us, even in places that we least expect.

(page swishing) (gentle music) - [Anna] And now, an excerpt from our digital series called "Waves of Change," where we spotlight the diverse perspectives shaping the environmental justice movement throughout the Great Lakes.

This time, we talk with Brenda Coley, Co-Executive Director of the urban network and non-profit organization, Milwaukee Water Commons.

The group has a Water City agenda that takes an intersectional approach to laying out climate issues and proposed solutions for Wiscosin's largest city.

- What we've tried to do is have programming that addresses each of those issues at Milwaukee Water Commons.

So, for example, you wouldn't necessarily think that water quality.

is regarding trees, but trees are a significant portion of water quality.

It really reduces flooding in the city and it's mental health and public health benefits a reduction of asthma if there are trees that are present, if we have a robust tree canopy.

This becomes an environmental justice issue if some communities have more trees than others.

And so we have a project called Branch Out, and we are working with planting around 250 trees in the Sherman Park area.

Now, what's significant or different from this, or really kind of revolutionary is that we are definitely, we have set up a tree board of community residents to really be tree ambassadors around this issue.

And also to help to guide us on where to plant trees and what's needed.

- Thanks for watching.

For the full interview with Brenda Coley, or for more about any of our stories, visit GreatLakesNow.org.

When you get there, you can follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter to get updates about our work.

See you out on the lakes!

(page swishing) (rhythmic music) (rhythmic music) (rhythmic music continues) (page swishing) This program is brought to you by, The Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, The Charles Stuart Mott Foundation..., Richard C. Devereaux Foundation for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV, the Polk Family Fund, DTE Foundation, and contributions to your PBS station from Viewers Like You.

Thank you.

(gentle music) (rhythmic music)