Less ambient light in Lake Michigan this year

[Tamara Thomsen]

Braille diving- yeah, been there!  I gave up wreck diving on Lake Michigan in ‘92 and took up cave diving after having the bejeezus scared out of me on a dive on the Prins Willem.  Bill Prince actually had to wholeheartedly convince to give it a try again.  I hope those days never come back!

On a brighter note, some of the Fisheries guys are saying that they are actually starting to see predation on the zebra mussels.  Apparently they are finding shells in the guts of whitefish. The mussels are not providing a terrific food source for the fish, since the fish are overall smaller in size.  This however means that there is a chance that the zebras will never be as prolific as they are in the eastern lakes. 

I remember diving in Lake Ontario some years ago- the first time that I had seen zebra mussels- and the wrecks were these blob looking things in the shape of ships but with no defining edges.  You could stick your hand into the zebras and be half way up your arm before hitting wood.  I hoped that our wrecks here in Wisconsin would never get to that point!