The Ohio Clean Marinas Program produced an instructional video for shrink-wrap recycling.

The Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative addresses harmful algal blooms in Ohio from all angles.

People living around Lake Erie are quite familiar with algal toxins – harmful algal blooms are a near-yearly occurrence, and those blooms can produce toxins that need to be removed from drinking water drawn from the lake. Researchers at The University of Toledo are now setting their sights on another potential set of contaminants.

Lake Erie is a vital resource to Ohio, supplying drinking water, recreational opportunities and employment to millions of people. The lake is weathering its fair share of problems, from harmful algal blooms to industrial pollution, but it also faces new potential threats to its health. One of those threats is quickly gaining more attention from scientists, and it’s also one that residents can play a large role in addressing: contamination from pharmaceutical products.

The town of Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie’s South Bass Island is a popular tourist destination during the summer, hosting as many as 750,000 visitors every year. That’s great for the local economy, but all those people also bring something else to the island: lots and lots of plastic.

Ohio Sea Grant Extension Educator Jill Bartolotta and Stone Laboratory Education & Outreach Assistant Sue Bixler have estimated that Put-in-Bay tourists could eliminate 2.81 million plastic straws, 2.81 million plastic bags and 3.75 million plastic bottles a year by choosing reusable alternatives like metal water bottles and canvas bags. A two-year outreach project, with funding from NOAA’s Marine Debris Program, is aimed at encouraging those reusable alternatives both on the island and back at home.

Put-in-Bay teacher Melissa Kowalski brought hands-on Lake Erie science back to her classroom after a week on the U.S. EPA's R/V Lake Guardian.