Lake Erie Water Quality Project

Overview

The Objective of the Monitoring Lake Erie Water Quality Project is to explore the potential use of satellite data for monitoring cyanobacterial blooms in Lake Erie.

Cyanobacteria are especially harmful algal blooms because they sometimes produce toxins that can sicken or kill humans and other mammals, as well as fish.

Lake Erie is unique among the Great Lakes. While being the shallowest of the lakes and the smallest of the Great Lakes by volume, Lake Erie is the most productive and biologically diverse of the five lakes. Some 143 different species of fish have been identified in its watershed. The annual catch of the commercial fishery in Lake Erie is greater than the catch in the other four Great Lakes combined, making it the most valuable freshwater fishery in the world. (See here.)