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Featured News Articles

Students Try to Tip the Balance Against Invasive Gobies

July 25, 2019 by DJ Kickbush

By Winifred Bird –

On a recent Thursday morning between spring storms, six Washington Island Middle School students huddled excitedly around a dock at Shipyard Island Marina, preparing to launch a real-world experiment with the potential to benefit not just their Island home but the entire Great Lakes ecosystem.  

“Who wants the honor?” asked Tim Verboomen, their eighth-grade advisor for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

Tommy Pratt, 14, stepped forward and grasped a black metal cage holding a light blue disk about the size of a smoke detector—a submersible speaker worth $1,200, on loan from Dennis Higgs, a biologist who has been advising the students on the project.

Feeding a yellow rope carefully through his hands, Pratt lowered the cage into the crystal-clear water. His classmates watched intently. The cage settled into place among some rocks encrusted with zebra mussels.

Although no one on the dock could hear it, the speaker then began to play a continuous loop of grunting sounds that Higgs, a professor at the University of Windsor, in Canada, described to the Observer as “a male round goby wanting to have sex.” The grunting sounds were recorded by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee fisheries ecologist John Janssen, another scientist the students enlisted in their project.

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Filed Under: Articles, Featured News Articles

Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding to build new ferry for Washington Island fleet

May 31, 2019 by admin

Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding and Washington Island Ferry Line have signed an agreement to construct a new, year-round passenger/vehicle ferry for service across Wisconsin’s Death’s Door Passage.

The new ferry will be named Madonna, measuring 124-ft. length, 40-ft. beam and 10-ft. 8 in. draft. It will have capacity for as many as 28 vehicles and 150 passengers. The new ferry will be the largest in the Ferry Line fleet to-date. It is scheduled for delivery in late May 2020.

“We are pleased to build what is our third ferry for Washington Island,” says Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding’s Vice President and General Manager Todd Thayse. “All current ferry vessels were built in Sturgeon Bay – two by Peterson Builders and this will be our third here at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding. Our past work is indicative of the quality and attention to detail the Ferry Line and all of our customers have come to expect from our seasoned workforce. This contract will add to the steady work relied upon by the hundreds of women and men we employ from across the region.”

“This opportunity to build yet another ferry vessel in a Door County shipyard is something we’re extremely proud of,” says Washington Island Ferry Line President Hoyt Purinton. “Built locally, this ferry – like our other vessels – will operate exclusively in Door County waters between Washington Island and the tip of the Door Peninsula.”

(See full story in May 23 issue)

Filed Under: Featured News Articles

Get ready for the 2019 birding festival

February 14, 2019 by admin

By Chari Rutledge

All eyes will be on the skies during the 2019 Washington Islands Birding Festival. Mark your calendars for May 16-19.
PHOTO SUBMITTED

Plans are underway for the 2019 Washington Islands Birding Festival to be held May 16-19. The festival is under the auspices of the Washington Island Art and Nature Center, and is also sponsored by the Washington Island Ferry Line and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The festival features guided small group birding on Washington, Plum and Rock Islands. Our Islands are located on the Great Lakes flyway. Data collected on the Island shows that this weekend, in particular, usually promises the largest amount of bird activity. The 2018 festival bore that out with 139 species recorded by the 60 birders attending. The birders also enjoyed dinners and programs that gave them a chance to meet and get to know one another.


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Filed Under: Featured News Articles

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Students Try to Tip the Balance Against Invasive Gobies

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