Ferry Jiimaan being towed from Kingsville to Sarnia by tugs Molly M. I and John D. on August 11, 2021. [Bill Moran]

According to the Ministry of Transportation, the vessel is being sold on an “as-is, where-is” basis and is not represented as being in seaworthy condition. No asking price has been publicly disclosed.

CTV News

The saltwater tanker Prime is due to arrive at Ludington Saturday, presumably to load calcium chloride at OxyChem, the leading producer of that product. That facility has not hosted a tanker in years, although domestic tug-barge traffic is frequent. She is expected to be trading locally on the lakes for the next six months, calcium chloride in Ludington for either Goderich, Oshawa, Bath and Trois Rivières. She is the former Kiisla.

Prime on her first trip up the Seaway. [Pat English]

CHEBOYGAN, MI – The seasonal Lake Huron ferry Kristen D operating out of Cheboygan could get a late start due to high water on the Cheboygan River watershed that’s straining local dams.

Carferry Kristen D. in a recent image. [Kathy Brown]

From May to November, the ferry operates seven days a week, making multiple round trips between Cheboygan and Bois Blanc Island.

Officials with the U.S. Coast Guard and Michigan Department of Natural Resources told Plaunt that boat access restrictions could remain in place for up to a month. That would put the start of the ferry season around May 19, about three weeks late (the planned opening day is May 1).

MLive

MIDLAND, MI – With the warm winds of spring here and summer approaching, the cruising season is about to get into full gear, and the Great Lakes are expected to see record numbers.

American Patroit will be new to the Great Lakes this summer.

Cruises along the Great Lakes to various cities and ports are projected to have an economic impact that could exceed $300 million this year. That is a 25% increase from 2025, according to Cruise The Great Lakes. The organization also notes a domino effect of benefits for port communities, including “more passengers, more port visits and higher shoreside spending,” among other factors.

“I think one of the reasons Great Lakes cruises are growing is because a lot of cruising folks, people who are passionate about cruising, have done the big cruises, and they’ve done river cruises in Europe, and they are thinking, what’s new and what’s next,” Sally Berry, tourism director of Cruise The Great Lakes, told CBS Detroit. “You know, it’s fascinating to me, the economic impact that these cruise ships have …  I think the demand is really just starting. I think we’re going to see cruising in the Great Lakes grow for many years to come.”

According to Viking Cruises, travelers can choose from various Great Lakes itineraries, including routes from Detroit to Toronto with a stop in Cleveland along the way. There are also more open-water itineraries from Duluth, Minnesota, to Michigan’s Mackinac Island. That route takes travelers over the wreck site of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

“As we look to 2026, we’re excited to see continued growth in the Great Lakes cruise sector,” Berry added in a statement. “We forecast this upcoming season to be even stronger than 2025, both in terms of passenger numbers, destinations visited, and economic impact, which underscores the appeal of cruising in the Great Lakes.”

Midland Daily News/CBS Detroit
Visit the Cruise the Great Lakes site here:

National Museum of the Great Lakes.

TOLEDO –  The National Museum of the Great Lakes (NMGL) recently earned two awards from the Ohio Museums Association, including Institution of the Year and Best Exhibition for “Dark Waters.”

The awards, part of OMA’s Awards of Achievement, recognize outstanding institutions and projects that demonstrate excellence and impact across Ohio’s museum community. “This is a major milestone for our organization,” said Kate Fineske, Executive Director of the National Museum of the Great Lakes. “Being recognized for our first large-scale temporary exhibition and our overall growth and impact in 2025 shows the dedication of our team, partners, and supporters.”

The Institution of the Year award highlights NMGL’s momentum in 2025, a year of growth with a new five-year strategic plan and the opening of the Second Wave expansion. This expansion introduced new galleries and spaces for community conversations.

In 2025, NMGL also welcomed more than 32,000 visitors, its highest attendance in more than 80 years, and expanded its reach through new programming, including the 50th-anniversary weekend of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The events drew thousands from across the U.S. and Canada, generated over $100,000 in economic impact, and garnered national media coverage, including from The New York Times.

The Best Exhibition award honors “Dark Waters: True Crime and Mystery on the Great Lakes,” the museum’s first large-scale temporary exhibition. The exhibit explored compelling stories of crime, catastrophe, and unresolved mysteries across the Great Lakes through immersive storytelling, rare artifacts, and extensive regional collaboration.

“Dark Waters” attracted thousands of visitors and contributed to the museum’s record- breaking attendance. By blending maritime history with true-crime storytelling, the exhibition reached new audiences while deepening engagement among returning visitors. Developed in partnership with museums, historical societies, and private lenders across the region, the exhibit demonstrated NMGL’s growing capacity to produce bold, contemporary exhibitions.

Find more information about the National Museum of the Great Lakes here.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A surplus of rain from March through the first half of April has significantly boosted Lake Michigan-Huron ahead of the summer season. Over the last month, most locations in West Michigan have received 200 to 300% of normal precipitation. What’s more, this is officially the wettest start to the year on record up to April 18.

Wisconsin has also been inundated with water, adding to the Lake Michigan water basin and causing it to rise. In just one month’s time, the US Army Corps of Engineers has estimated a 10-inch rise in water level in Lake Michigan-Huron.

Lake Michigan and Huron are connected at the Straits of Mackinac, effectively making them one giant lake for water-level data. The lake is still about two inches shy of where it usually is this time of year, and a full three feet lower than its all-time April high back in 2020. A single inch rise on Lake Michigan-Huron amounts to around 800 billion gallons of water, making a 10-inch rise 8 trillion gallons.

Current forecasts project a continued climb for all five Great Lakes into the middle of May. Lake Michigan-Huron is expected to rise three inches, with Superior rising four inches, Erie rising four inches, and Ontario rising five inches.

These levels should make for an easier launch to boating season come Memorial Day weekend. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues a new weekly forecast for lake level change, with the next update expected on April 23.

WOOD-TV
See the full story here.

Viking Polaris near St. Clair, MI, on Monday. [Lori Hannon]

The 665-foot Viking Polaris launched the season when it docked Monday in Detroit. She passed through the St. Clair River later that day headed for an Alpena visit on Tuesday and then off Mackinac Island on Wednesday. It will conclude on Friday in Milwaukee, Wis.

Victory Cruise Lines will be the next to begin its season on April 25 with its Cruise All 5 Great Lakes itinerary. Its first call on Michigan will be on May 1 in Detroit. The itinerary includes stops at Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinac Island and Escanaba.

Michigan’s cruising season will include nine ships from seven cruise lines: Six of the seven cruise lines will bring nine ships to Michigan ports: Pearl Seas (Pearl Mist), Ponant (Le Bellot, Le Champlain), Victory (Victory I, Victory II), Viking (Octantis, Polaris), Hapag-Lloyd (Hanseatic Inspiration), and American Cruise Lines (American Patriot).

The industry is expected to have a $300 million economic impact on the Great Lakes region this year – that’s a 25% increase over 2025, according to a forecast by Cruise the Great Lakes, a marketing program focused on attracting more passengers to the region. The projected passenger number of 23,000 is a 5% increase over 2025. More than 800 port visits are planned, a 15% increase.

M Live

TOLEDO, OH – Get an author-signed copy of the newly released 2026 Know Your Ships: Guide to Boats & Boatwatching on the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway and meet the books editor and publisher Roger LeLievre this Saturday at the National Museum of the Great Lakes.

Books will be available for sale in the museum store and ready for Roger’s signature from 10 am – 1 pm. Joining him will be Great Lakes caricaturist Don Lee, who, for a small donation, will be happy to sketch your likeness with or without your favorite ship.

The National Museum of the Great Lakes is located at 1701 Front St., Toledo, OH.

National Museum of the Great Lakes

ABOUT THE BOOK: Meant not only for those with a casual interest in the parade of nautical commerce that passes our shores, Know Your Ships also has plenty to interest the more serious-minded individuals who have a passion for the ships that ply the inland seas. Besides the essential stats (owner, year built, length, capacity and former names) for hundreds of freighters, tugs, barges, Coast Guard cutters, cruise ships, and saltwater visitors, Know Your Ships also contains essentials about the cargoes the big boats carry, where they load and unload, the locks, canals and waterways they transit, what the boat whistles mean, stack markings and nation flags, plus ways to follow the freighters as they make their way from port to port. In addition, there’s a section on Great Lakes marine museums as well as a new Spotlight section that includes stories about ships, sailors and maritime adventures.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Shipping on the Great Lakes got underway in earnest at the end of March. It’s the start of a season Port of Green Bay Director Dean Haen hopes will build on an uptick in cargo volumes late last year. “It was just not that great of a shipping season,” he said about 2025. “We had tariff concerns to start the year. We had a reduction of construction, manufacturing and ag in the area, which were reflected in the port tonnages.”

Albert-Margaret inbound to Green Bay. [Steve Hogl

“The port really can only see six months into the future, it seems,” Haen said. “But the fact we ended strong, and we’re starting out strong, that bodes well between here and the middle of the shipping season. The rest of the shipping season is to be determined.”

The Lake Carriers Association reports cargo totals on U.S. flagged lakes freighters were down about 9% from the 2024 season. The association reports, with the exception of salt, all commodity groups dropped. That includes products like grain, coal and iron ore.

“As we look ahead at 2026, we’re definitely hoping for an uptick, but there’s a lot of uncertainty. It’s just really hard to predict right now,” said Jayson Hron, who handles communications for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.

“We see some signs there could possibly be a domestic steel increase, which would certainly help iron ore tonnage from the port, but beyond that it’s just a little too early to tell,” he added.

While bulk commodities face challenges, he said other cargoes are faring better. “It was another good season for the break-bulk cargos,” Hron said. “It marks our 20th anniversary of the very first shipment of wind-energy cargo that we received in the Port of Duluth-Superior. It was a strong year for wind cargos and other types of project cargos.”

Ports and carriers are also keeping an eye on lake levels, which fluctuate. Haen said the Green Bay’s port is down six to eight inches from the long-term average. “For every inch that is available, or not available, those vessels using the Port of Green Bay are carrying an extra 100 tons or not,” he said.

Spectrum News