🚨🚨🚨 Attention science communicators! 🚨🚨🚨 The 2026 Science IRL mini-grant application is NOW OPEN! Submit your creative ideas for connecting people with actionable science information *offline*. The deadline for this round of grants is March 23, 2026. Apply here! forms.gle/4emvpRPddmEt...

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

Keep it Shrimple

Today is International Day of Women & Girls in Science! It is a privilege to work with a small but mighty team at the @iaglr.bsky.social where 86% of our staff and contractors is made up of woman in science. #WomenInScience

Help us protect new water bodies and access points from aquatic #invasivespecies by applying for funding for this summer's #GreatLakes AIS Landing Blitz! This annual event unites partners to prevent the spread of AIS at boating access sites. https://ow.ly/E4Xi50Ych2m#invasivespecies#GreatLakes#GLAISBlitz

If you write primarily about nature and environmental issues, it can be hard to see the value of your work during times like these. I wrote about this a bit in my introduction to @biographic.bsky.social's weekly newsletter.

Since January 20, 2025, the #GreatLakes region has lost 19,450 federal jobs including at NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (which lost 20% of its workforce) + US Fish & Wildlife Service, threatening scientific research and ecosystem protection www.nemw.org/trump-admini...

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

I’m one of the panelists in this session — tune in if you can!

More delays for the Brandon Road Interbasin Project which aims to prevent invasive carp from entering the #GreatLakes “The federal investment currently is on hold without justification and additional contracts for the project cannot be awarded due to the funding pause" www.mlive.com/environment/...

"106,636 years of federal work experience were lost across the 10,109 employees with Ph.D.s who departed STEM or health roles 1 January–30 November." It isn't just the scientific knowledge but the *institutional* knowledge that's been lost. Rebuilding federal science will be a generational effort.

been thinking a lot recently about that story of the bald eagle found dead, next to the body of a loon chick, with a hole in its heart the size and shape of a loon's beak

The Senate passed a package of appropriations bills, sending them to the President’s desk. The bill increases funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and rejects proposed cuts to NOAA and the EPA. Read NEMWI’s Great Lakes analysis here: buff.ly/UlAZcJh

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

For ease of navigation and sharing, I have turned my little list into a website: standwithminnesota.org

Friendly reminder that government spending on Great Lakes Restoration averages a $3:$1 ROI.

The Coalition, along with more than 70 member groups submitted a letter urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw their proposed revision to the definition of “Waters of the United States" #GreatLakes buff.ly/uaTiksB

Joyeux No-eel: Lampreys as a group are sometimes incorrectly called “lamprey eels." While they do look like eels in that they have slender, snake-like bodies and smooth, slippery skin, lampreys are more primitive, lacking jaws and having a skeleton made of cartilage instead of bone #25DaysofFishmas

My absolute favorite holiday tradition is Lampreia de Ovos, a Portuguese Christmas dessert which contains zero (0) actual lamprey but 50 (!) egg yolks, sugar, and almonds - and is shaped to look like a lamprey. Don’t forget cherries for the eyes! #25DaysofFishmas www.atlasobscura.com/foods/lampre...

FINAL DAY! There have been some fantastic submissions by some awesome #scicomm folks. Don’t miss out on being a part of an amazing week of scicomm at the annual conference. bit.ly/4nTTfxz #IAGLR26 #ConnectedWaters26

Last day to submit an abstract, folks!

Before we head off for the holiday season we wanted to wish you all a Merry Fishmas 🐟 and a Happy New Year 🎆 📷PCU1.3: A festive postcard from Joseph Thomas Cunningham, a marine biologist known for his work on flatfish, to an unknown recipient

Don’t miss out! Last day for abstracts is tomorrow. #scicomm #IAGLR26 #ConnectedWaters26

If you were considering submitting an abstract for SCAS/IAGLR for our EDI session but didn't because you were only allowed to give one talk, you are now allowed to submit a second talk for sessions 7-11! (We're #10 🤓) And you still have 2 days left to submit an abstract! iaglr.org/iaglr-scas26...

Back in the 1960s, 18 American bluegill got a royal welcome in Japan -- and became the center of an ecological catastrophe. Great reporting from Interlochen Public Radio's Points North team (including an interview with our own @helloellower.bsky.social !)

Join the #GLANSIS team in Winnipeg next year at the joint #IAGLR & #SCAS-SCSA conference!

Are you a #GreatLakes #InvasiveSpecies researcher or communicator planning to attend #IAGLR26 in Winnipeg? Submit an abstract to our Session 19 by December 19! bit.ly/4nTTfxz @iaglr.bsky.social #AIS

Our #GLANSIS program manager and I will be chairing Session 19 at IAGLR 2026, though ours is apparently one of SEVERAL invasive species-themed sessions — we’ve got strong overlap with sessions 18 and 52 proposed by our Canadian colleagues, so perhaps we can put our heads together and collaborate!

Quagga mussels - the animal in my profile pic - have caused ecosystem shifts in 4/5 Laurentian Great Lakes They're like kobolds - individually they are tiny and weak but are able to overwhelm the environment with their sheer numbers

Don’t miss your chance to present! Call for Abstracts is now open, offering 70+ sessions to help you find the perfect fit for your oral or poster presentation. The 2026 hybrid conference will take place May 25–29 in Winnipeg. Submit by December 19: https://bit.ly/4nTTfxz

Call for Abstracts is open! With 70+ sessions, there are plenty of opportunities to find the best fit for your oral or poster presentation. The conference will be held May 25–29, 2026, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as a hybrid event. Call deadline, December 19: https://bit.ly/4nTTfxz

Today, as always, we're thankful for the Great Lakes and all the incredible people who care for them

Are you planning on attending the IAGLR & SCAS-SCSA 2026 Joint Conference in Winnipeg on May 25–29, 2026? I will be co-chairing a session (assuming I can secure funding) on Priorities for DEIA in Aquatic Sciences. Please consider submitting an abstract to our session! iaglr.org/iaglr-scas26...

Dear grad students, Reminder: it’s also totally fine to ignore your [uncle] who thinks your research is a waste of time and resources. You don’t owe people an explanation! They don’t have to get it! Or, as someone told me as a life-changing piece of advice: reasons are for reasonable people.

Oil-detecting dogs and battery-powered ships: dive into HazMaTON’s webinar collection for excellent presentations about hazardous material transport, oil spill clean-up, mapping projects, and more: buff.ly/5Awf7x6 @mnseagrant.bsky.social

The U.S. EPA and Army Corps of Engineers has proposed a set of new rules that would leave millions of acres of wetlands, small waterbodies, and ephemeral streams across the country unprotected — threatening the drinking water of millions of Americans. #GreatLakes #CleanWater buff.ly/8mEJpMf

I’m following Les Mis Letters (reading a chapter a day of the unabridged Les Miserables for a full year) and we have now reached the infamous sewer digression. Victor Hugo is second only to @neorsd.org in their respective passions for wastewater management….

Beyond Chicago's charismatic exotic animals (shout-out to Chance the Snapper), the city's waterways have also become home to less conspicuous - but environmentally harmful - exotic species like weatherfish, goldfish, and red swamp crayfish. A good reminder to never release pets to the wild!

In our #PictureOfTheWeek, invasive carp exposed to an electric shock leap out of the Illinois River. Now, a new and contentious plan aims to keep the fish out of the Great Lakes: buff.ly/avmUipw

I’ll be presenting virtually this time around and am looking forward to our session tomorrow!

NOAA saves lives. We need to save NOAA.

Michigan lawmakers want to greatly increase funding for invasive mussel control research in the #GreatLakes to $500 million over the next 10 years - as Great Lakes Fishery Commission's Greg McClinchey says in this article: "Mussels are this generation’s sea lamprey" bridgemi.com/michigan-env...

I think I'm pivoting from "everyone call your Senators to stop this" and am going to swing into "everyone call your Senators to tell them you're still pissed and you're coming for them in a primary season and we're not going to forget"

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee' The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead When the skies of November turn gloomy 🧵

While the Edmund Fitzgerald is the most famous, the #GreatLakes are home to an estimated 6000 - 10,000 shipwrecks. Many wrecks occur in fall due to the "November Witch" winds caused by a clash of cold Canadian air from the north + warm Gulf air from the south www.discovermagazine.com/as-an-underw...

Gordon Lightfoot's iconic song tells the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald, lost 50 years ago this month. As we sing along, take a moment to connect with some of the other stories that unite us around a shared Great Lakes heritage: buff.ly/5YqgUrb

The shutdown has left NOAA's network of cooperative research institutes locked out of federal labs and cut off from federal collaborators. In some cases, it's affecting research aimed at public safety—like toxic algae monitoring in the Great Lakes. My story 🔏 & quick 🧵 www.eenews.net/articles/shu...

Not much is scarier for a #GreatLakes fish than the invasive sea lamprey, sometimes called vampire fish 🧛 But while they're more trick than treat in their introduced range, they're actually threatened in parts of their native range of the Atlantic coasts of Europe + North America - that's scary!

#FoodieFriday This colorful fish dish with rice noodles and herbs is sure to brighten up any dreary day. It's a riff on cha ca, a grilled Vietnamese dish famous in the city of Hanoi, but El Lower has tweaked the classic to feature any lean, mild local fish cooked up in a pan.

Long after the Halloween season has ended, some Great Lakes’ invasive species remain a scary sight: blood-sucking parasites with suction-cup mouths, thousands of rotting fish carcasses washed ashore and sharp mussel shells that puncture the feet of beachgoers ☠️ www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/grea...