Minnesota Sea Grant

🚢 What secrets (and risks) lie at the bottom of the Great Lakes? 🌊

In 2013, NOAA identified five potentially polluting shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. Just two years later, one of them, the tank barge Argo, was found leaking toxic cargo into .

Join Minnesota Sea Grant and the Hazardous Material Transport Outreach Network ( ) for the second installment of our 2026 Summer Webinar Series. We will dive deep into the multi-agency response to the Argo, the unique challenges responders faced, and the remaining four high-risk wrecks (including the famous Edmund Fitzgerald).

Guest speaker Jim Elliott (COO of T&T Group of Companies) will also discuss cutting-edge advances in deep-water pollutant recovery technology.

📅 Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2026
🕚 Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
💵 Cost: FREE (Registration required)
🔗 Sign up here: z.umn.edu/HazMaTON26

Minnesota Sea Grant is looking for 1-2 Aquaculture Lab Interns for the Summer 2026 season! If you are a current UMN undergraduate (any campus) who will still be enrolled this fall, this is your chance to dive into sustainable fisheries and aquaculture!

What you’ll do:
🐟 Care for fish species in the lab on the UMN St. Paul campus.
🐟 Conduct field and lab data collection.
🐟 Support projects like the Egg-to-Market Yellow Perch project and the Aquaculture Lab.
🐟Analyze data and help with community outreach events.

Details:
Pay: $15.25/hour
Hours: Up to 40 hours/week (June - August)
Location: UMN St. Paul Campus & various field sites
Deadline to apply: June 12, 2026

Ready to gain fin-tastic lab experience?

👉 How to apply: Head to the UMN Careers page and search Job Opening ID: 374195 or learn more at: https://z.umn.edu/26-mnsg-aq-lab-intern

🎆 Ever wonder what happens to all that smoke and debris after the 4th of July fireworks fade?

Each year, hundreds of millions of pounds of fireworks are launched in the U.S. While they put on a spectacular show, they also release perchlorate, a key fireworks ingredient and a known drinking water contaminant, into the environment.

Join Itasca Waters and Minnesota Sea Grant for our next Practical Water Wisdom webinar on June 4 to explore how fireworks affect our local lakes, rivers, and groundwater.

What we’ll cover:
💧How perchlorate impacts thyroid function and overall water safety.
💧Data from field studies and national water surveys before and after major holiday events.
💧How lake size, runoff, and direct deposition determine the actual risk to your drinking water.

Featured speaker: Andrew Jackson, Ph.D., Board-Certified Environmental Engineer and Chair of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering at Texas Tech University.

🗓️ Thursday, June 4 at noon CT
🎟️ Cost: FREE and open to the public (Registration is required)
Register here: https://z.umn.edu/pww-fireworks

Looking for a paid summer gig that combines cutting-edge tech with environmental science? 🌊🔬

The University of Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota Sea Grant are hiring 2–4 temporary Research Assistants for an exciting 8-week summer project! Help build affordable, real-time water monitoring systems to track lake health, and create lesson plans to bring this technology into local middle and high school classrooms.

💰 Pay: $20.26/hour
⏱️ Hours: Full-time (40 hrs/week) for 8 weeks
📍 Location: UMD Campus

What you’ll do:

Tech & Engineering (50%): 3D printing, soldering, and configuring microcontrollers (Arduino/Raspberry Pi) to beam environmental data to the cloud.

Education & Outreach (30%): Translate complex tech into user-friendly assembly guides and STEM lesson plans for teachers.

If you have a background in STEM, coding, or educational technology and want to make a real-world impact on freshwater science, apply today!

🔗 External Applicants: https://hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/ext/374120
🔗 Internal UMN Applicants: https://hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/int/374120
👉 More Info: https://z.umn.edu/26-mnsg-research-asst

How is science shaping the future of Minnesota’s water? 🌊 Join Freshwater Folk for our June event: the 2025-2026 Minnesota Sea Grant Science and Policy Fellow Showcase!

Meet our three fellows and hear about their work with our state’s resources:
💧Larissa Scott: Stream restoration tools and climate resiliency in St. Louis County, Minnesota.
💧Reid Brown: Data-driven insights into water sustainability and high-volume permitting with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
💧Reane Loiselle-Kasun: New research on managing aquatic invasive species (Curly-leaf pondweed) and water quality with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

Where: Duluth MPCA (525 Lake Ave. S.) OR Online via Zoom
When: Wednesday, June 3, 2026
Schedule: 11:30 AM (Networking & Sandwiches) | 12:00 PM (Program)

The event is FREE and open to the public, but registration is required for both in-person and virtual seats. Register here: https://z.umn.edu/mnsg-26-fellow-showcase

Note: In-person attendees get sandwiches; the Zoom option is sadly sandwich-free! 🥪

Funding for the Minnesota Sea Grant Science and Policy Fellowship is provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). Additional support for the 2025-26 cohort was provided by St. Louis County.

The 2026 HazMaTON Summer Webinar Series kicks off its 10th anniversary season on May 27! 🚢

Join us as we welcome Dr. Allie Snider from the U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes Oil Spill Center of Expertise (GLCOE). We’ll be discussing how response tools are evolving and how the GLCOE is training the next generation of responders to protect our freshwater environments.

📅 When: Wednesday, May 27, 2026
🕚 Time: 11:00 a.m. – noon CDT/Noon – 1:00 p.m. EDT
💰 Cost: FREE (Registration required)
🔗 Register here: z.umn.edu/HazMaTON26

Tags: University of Wisconsin Sea Grant/Water Resources Institutes Michigan Sea Grant Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Ohio Sea Grant Pennsylvania Sea Grant New York Sea Grant Lake Champlain Sea Grant

"Forever chemicals" are falling from the sky. ⛈️🧪

A team of researchers from Minnesota Sea Grant has discovered that PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a persistent presence in precipitation over the .

The data is in:
📍 PFAS was detected in 100% of rain and snow samples over a 2-year period.
📍 Atmospheric transport means these chemicals can travel hundreds of miles before landing in our lakes.
📍 Standard tests might be missing hundreds of unique fluorinated compounds.

Learn how this research is helping resource managers protect local watersheds: https://z.umn.edu/mnsg-26-pfas-research

Ever wondered what it takes to keep our waters clean? 🌊

Put yourself in the shoes of a decision-maker! Join us at the Anoka County Library - Mississippi Branch to play the Watershed Game. This nationally recognized interactive experience lets you decide how a community grows while protecting our most precious resource: water.

You’ll work with others to balance plans, policies, and practices to hit clean water goals. It’s fun, fast-paced, and educational!

📅 When: May 18 | 5:00 p.m.
📍 Where: Mississippi Branch, Anoka County Library
💰 Cost: FREE and open to the public!

Ready to dive in? Get more details here: https://z.umn.edu/mnsg-wsg-anoka-mississippi

🐟 It’s almost time for the Minnesota fishing opener!

As you gear up for tomorrow’s opener, Minnesota Sea Grant wants to ensure every angler is ready to protect our wild Steelhead populations.

Steelhead have been a staple of since 1895, but they can be tricky to distinguish from other Pacific Salmon. To keep our fishery thriving, remember: all wild (identified by an intact adipose fin) are catch-and-release only. This regulation has successfully increased both the size and number of fish since 1997!

To help you make quick, accurate decisions while on the water, we’ve created the Steelhead vs. Salmon Identification Decal. It’s a simple, weather-resistant guide that attaches to:
✅ Your boat gunwale
✅ Tackle boxes
✅ Coolers or backpacks

Don't guess when you have a fish in hand; know for sure to avoid getting yourself in hot water.

Get your free decal here: https://z.umn.edu/MNSG-Steelhead-Salmon

They say the mosquito is the unofficial state bird of Minnesota - that's one kind of bird we don't want to watch for. 🚫🦟

Join Itasca Waters and MNSG to learn how to reclaim your yard from floodwater mosquitoes. We’re covering habitat control and how to enjoy the outdoors without becoming a buffet.

Register for free:
👉 https://z.umn.edu/mnsg-pww-mosquitoes