Featured Website: CoastWatch
Whether it’s for fishing, swimming or just general knowledge, the Michigan Sea Grant CoastWatch website provides information about Great Lakes surface water temperature. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites provide the raw data used to develop image maps with surface temperatures.
The CoastWatch site is fairly basic, offering surface temperatures for each Great Lake. Map options include full lake views, sections of lakes (e.g., north, central and south) and specific port views.
Three reasons you should visit the CoastWatch website:
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Make a splash. If you are planning a vacation to the Upper Peninsula this summer and are wondering if Lake Superior has warmed up yet, check out CoastWatch to get a hint of recent surface temps.
Want more help in planning the trip? Visit the Pure Michigan website for some insider information. See: Website
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Educate. Teachers looking for a project about temperature and weather will find near real-time data on CoastWatch. Note: Be sure to review the help and FAQ pages to learn about things like isotherms and spring thermocline.
A great complement to using CoastWatch data is the lesson about monitoring fish from Fisheries Learning on the Web (aligned to Michigan content expectations), See: Website
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Fish like a pro. Fishing is a goodly mix of magic and knowledge. Tracking water surface temperatures and seasonal changes can help an angler target efforts. Charter boat captains have used the information for years, helping them stay on the fish. How?
“First off, different fish species have different temperature preferences. Finding the appropriate temperature can be the first step in finding your favorite fish species,” Dan O’Keefe, Sea Grant’s Southwest Extension Educator explained.
“Also, in many Great Lakes environments, especially southern Lake Michigan, there is little structure (e.g., points, sunken islands, reefs) to attract fish, so ‘thermal structure’ becomes very important. Thermal bars are areas where cold and warmer water meet, forming a vertical temperature break. This acts as an edge that predators can relate to, and also concentrates food (because dead insects and other debris and food collect here) for prey fish.”
O’Keefe went on to say that CoastWatch can be used to find thermal bars miles off shore, and can also help identify upwellings of cold water near shore.
“Even in August, an upwelling can bring 47-degree water to the pier heads, which can bring coldwater fish, like salmon and steelhead, to shore even in mid-summer. Then, as water begins to warm after an upwelling, perch fishing picks up.”
See: Coastwatch website
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