New York Great Lakes Initiative




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One of New York’s
Greatest Resources:
The Great Lakes

WATER
Nearly 3 million New York citizens get their water from the Great Lakes Basin

The Great Lakes Basin supplies nearly 4 billion gallons of freshwater per day to New York for drinking water, industry, mining, commercial, agriculture and power

More than two hundred
million gallons per day are consumed from the Great Lakes Basin. (USGS 1990)

FISHING
On-location expenditures by fishermen are estimated at $134 million annually (Connelly et al 1999).

There were more than 126,000 private boat trips and 14,400 charter boat trips in Lake Ontario in 1996. (NY Sea Grant)

Lake Erie’s commercial fishing industry is worth an estimated $60 million (SOLEC 1997)

New York Great Lakes Initiative for Science and Education
*The Growing Great Lakes Crisis* New York’s Great Lakes are once again in serious trouble. Toxic algal blooms, massive fish die-offs, wetlands degrading to thick monocultures of cattails, birds sick and dying from fish-borne botulism, dramatic population decline of important recreational fish species, loss of native biota, reports of hormone-mimicking chemicals and traces of pharmaceutical drugs in the water, beach closings – these are clear signs of environmental crisis.	Courtesy of Visualizing the Lakes
For a printable version of this page click here (Adobe pdf,308K ) Great Lakes Research Consortium scientists have been warning for some time that despite the clean-up successes of the last two decades, New York’s Great Lakes are highly altered ecosystems, unstable and prone to crisis. A recent conference on New York’s North Coast, sponsored by the Consortium, highlighted the water quality problems of the nearshore zone of Lake Ontario that have gone largely ignored. Without ongoing study of the lakes’ ecology and hydrology and the impacts on them from climate change, sprawl, aging wastewater infrastructure, environmental release of new chemicals and pharmaceuticals and frequent colonization by invasive species of plants and animals, we will have no chance to protect these lakes for our future. Research – high-quality environmental research – is absolutely essential to inform our public policy on protection and restoration of the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Research Consortium scientists have been warning for some time that despite the clean-up successes of the last two decades, New York’s Great Lakes are highly altered ecosystems, unstable and prone to crisis.	The Growing Great Lakes Crisis The Crisis of the Late 1960s and 70s The Scientific Response The Origins of the Great Lakes Research Consortium The Need to Support Science in New York New York Has Not Received Its Fair Share of Federal Great Lakes Funding
New York's Great Lakes Facilities Network
Great Lakes Center at Buffalo Great Lakes Center at Brockport Environmental Research Center at Oswego GLRC Headquarters Cornell Biological Field Station SUNY ESF Thousand Islands Biological Field station Great Rivers Institute Lake Champlain Research Institute	To learn more about the facilities of the GLRC network, their current research projects, research specialties, facilities, and needed upgrades, click on any location above

Please contact GLRC
with any questions or comments