A seabed of shipwrecks
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The Great Lakes have the most shipwrecks per square mile among all bodies of water in the world, largely due to the high shipping traffic in the 19th century and the lake’s volatile weather. Researchers know about the wrecks because reporting any commercial ship that sails on the lakes is required; from the early 19th century to the 20th century, about 40,000 ships sailed the Great Lakes, Baillod said.
There are about 6,000 commercial vessels on the seabed of the Great Lakes, lost to storms or other issues. In Lake Michigan alone, there are over 200 shipwrecks waiting to be discovered, according to Baillod, who has created a database of these ships over the past three decades.
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Wrecks in the Great Lakes have been found since the 1960s, but in recent years the rate of these finds has accelerated greatly, in part due to media attention, clearer waters and better technology, Baillod said. Some wreck hunters and media outlets call this the golden age for shipwreck discoveries.
“There’s a lot more shipwreck awareness now on the Great Lakes, and people are looking down in the water at what’s on the bottom,” he added. Part of the reason it’s easier to see in the water is thanks to quagga mussels — an invasive species that was introduced in the 1990s. The mollusks have filtered most of the lakes, turning them from their old greenish hue, which allowed for only a few feet of visibility, to clear blue. Now, the lakes have visibility of up to 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30.5 meters), Baillod explained.
“Tourism has popped up around paddle boarding and kayaking, and these shipwrecks are visible from the surface because the water is so clear,” he added.
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And then there are advancements in technology. “Side-scan sonar used to cost $100,000 back in 1980,” he said. “The one we used to find this (shipwreck) was just over $10,000. They’ve really come down in price.”
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has a project in the works to map the bottom of the Great Lakes in high resolution by 2030. If the organization succeeds, all shipwrecks will be found, Baillod said.
In the meantime, Baillod said he hopes he and his team will continue to discover missing shipwrecks from his database in the coming years and bring along citizen scientists for the ride: “I keep looking, and I don’t doubt that we’ll keep finding.”