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Ice on Great Lakes Could Leave Lasting Problems

It has been more than a month since the ice covering the Great Lakes reached near-record highs, but the amount remaining could have major impacts on the environment in the months and years ahead, according to The Huffington Post.

Close to 37 percent of the Great Lakes are still covered in ice of as this week. In the beginning of March, 92.2 percent of the lakes were covered in ice. Recording of this data began in 1973 and this year marked the second-highest since then.

The remaining ice is causing problems for the region. CBS Chicago reported that a Coast Guard cutter was used to create a rout to Marquette, Michigan so coal could be delivered from Duluth, Minnesota. The shores of Lake Superior are still 64-percent frozen. CBS also reported that the ice is some two-feet thick in Marquette Harbor.

An ‘unprecedented’ number of duck deaths throughout the region are being blamed on the ice too. The Atlantic Cities said that disruptions to the fish ecosystem could also occur because of delays in egg laying due to the ice.

Since records started being kept in 1973, the only other April that saw such a large amount of ice remaining on the lakes was back in 1994. In 1994, 23-percent of the lakes were still frozen.

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Jim Vassallo: Jim is a freelance writer based out of the suburbs of Philadelphia in New Jersey. Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and minor in Journalism from Rowan University in 2008. While in school he was the Assistant Sports Director at WGLS for two years and the Sports Director for one year. He also covered the football, baseball, softball and both basketball teams for the school newspaper 'The Whit.' Jim lives in New Jersey with his wife Nicole, son Tony and dog Phoebe.

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