Michael Twiss
LightNews LightNews
banner
mtwiss.bsky.social
Michael Twiss
@mtwiss.bsky.social
210 followers 190 following 32 posts
Great Lakes limnologist; Prof Algoma Univ; past IJC Science Advisory Bd member; former IAGLR Pres. Watermark story: https://vimeo.com/180232420; Water-Sky image: @christibelcourt.com; inset is marine diesel in Great Lakes at dawn. Water & oil don’t mix.
Posts Replies Media Videos
mtwiss.bsky.social
It’s happening again. Now with much cooler weather this experiment will compare effects of a surface oil spill on shallow wetlands during summer (warming) or autumn (cooling) conditions.
Crude oil on cool surface water that spreads but is still cohesive.
October 7, 2025 at 2:34 AM
mtwiss.bsky.social
Happy Summer #Solstice 2025 - today on the TransCanada Highway outside of Banff, Alberta. Wet snow today - tomorrow daylight period gets shorter…..🧪
Snowfall on mountains with steam rising off roadside lake since air temperature (2C) much cooler than surface water temp. This is the summer solstice, beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere.
June 21, 2025 at 8:40 PM
mtwiss.bsky.social
Setting up 24 x 1,400-L tanks contains St Marys River water, sediment and plants. Seen is high level light crude oil addition (time zero). Observations of biota (eDNA, phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic inverts, and fish behavior) to follow. Funded by NRCan - MPRI project @algomau.bsky.social
Light crude added to an experimental chamber containing Great Lakes water. Technician adding crude oil to aquatic experiment.
June 18, 2025 at 6:18 PM
mtwiss.bsky.social
Great. Start with preventing stuff like this, if you can. Thank you for considering #OttCity.
Location of a salt (halite) dump on City of Ottawa land, a public park called Lincoln Fields. Photo is a bus stop adjacent to where a considerable amount of road salt was dumped directly on soil in a park. Approximately 300 kg (700 lb) of road salt dumped on a public park in Ottawa, Ontario (Lincoln Fields). Photo shows a man standing on large pile of halite (sodium chloride) left on top of soil.
April 3, 2025 at 12:39 AM
mtwiss.bsky.social
Eye spy: USCG Spar hanging out in Whitefish Bay. As seen from Gros Cap, Ontario, today. Still feels like winter here. #lakesuperior
Ship surrounded by ice in Lake Superior.
March 27, 2025 at 5:57 PM
mtwiss.bsky.social
I love my job! Encourage young adults to learn about the Great Lakes, provide expert speakers from across the region; guide them into the multinational treaties in the region - then divvy them up into env governance work groups and listen to them solve a problem!!
@algomau.bsky.social #greatlakes
The “International Joint Commission” discussing the problem with the “Tribal Governments” that approached them in this student-led exercise. The “US Federal, State, and Municipal Governments (left) and Canadian counterparts working through the issue. A problem statement. Text describes the various stakeholders (International Joint Commission, US and Canadian governments, US and Canadian public) and rights holders (Indigenous nations) and the problem they are facing, a toxic substance that is entering the upper Great Lakes from the Canadian watershed due to resource extraction. Five students representing the public in the group exercise. They are voters but also corporations.
March 25, 2025 at 9:40 PM
mtwiss.bsky.social
Happy World Water Day! As part of this celebration, I attended the first Anishnabek Nation Water Consortium, held March 18 & 19 in Little Current, on Manitoulin Island. Learned a lot about our reciprocal responsibilities with #water. #anishnaabe #GreatLakes
Logo of the first Anishnabek Nation Water Consortium, contains a fish, wave, and text in English and Anishnabemowin “Great Lakes Gathering for the sake of water - Gchi-Gami Maamwi - Nweshkdaading Nibi Onji”.
March 22, 2025 at 11:49 PM
mtwiss.bsky.social
CGLR announces that : Mark Fisher, CEO of the Council of the Great Lakes Region, to become the first President of the Canada Water Agency!

Congratulations!
That’s a shallow bay in summer but a hillock of ice in winter. Photo of a walker summiting a crest of lake ice on the eastern shore of Lake Superior
March 8, 2025 at 2:48 AM
mtwiss.bsky.social
Beautiful landscapes abound. Enduring an afternoon outing on the east coast of Lake Superior. #greatlakes
A normally cobble stone beach is transformed by wind, waves and ice. Three meters of ice a top 1 m of water. Remnants of earlier storms are seen in the distance with ice piled against the shore. Wind waves and freezing temperatures change the landscape from a simple beach to a tortuous shoreline. Waves create a changing landscape with every west wind that blows apart the ice offshore and throws it towards the beach to freeze in fantastic shapes.
February 19, 2025 at 3:50 AM
mtwiss.bsky.social
So,... on the theme of the #gulfofmexico, today I joined Wikipedia in order to edit "The United Lakes of America, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a ...." and "The United Lakes of America are the largest group....". #greatlakes
Screen shot of a Wikipedia page showing edits made to remove addressing the Great Lakes as the "United Lakes of America". Several of these minor edits were made to this Wikipedia page that many refer to for valid information.
February 17, 2025 at 1:36 PM
mtwiss.bsky.social
Many thanks to my colleague @1pantunes.bsky.social for the help and good chat!
Biology professor standing 50 m off shore on land fast ice on the east coast of Lake Superior. Air temperature -20 C with no wind. Hoar frost on fresh black ice due to heat from cooling water. Gos Cap, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario (Bawaating).
February 2, 2025 at 12:04 AM
mtwiss.bsky.social
[RFP Please repost] The IJC GLRO (@IJCsharedwaters.bsky.social) is currently soliciting bids to undertake a pilot project of the Great Lakes Early Warning System. Interested bidders should contact Rajendra.poudel@ijc.org for a copy of RFP and to confirm intent. Proposals due Feb 4 2025, 11 am EST.
Various gradients warranting consideration in a Great Lakes Early Warning System designed for the Laurentian Great Lakes that describe ranges of factors that together define the interconnected space occupied by a given threat.
January 16, 2025 at 2:01 PM
mtwiss.bsky.social
Good morning solstice sun from Baawaating- Saint Sainte Marie, Ontario!
The shore of the St Marys River, the outflow from Lake Superior to Lake Huron; -20 C air temperature. Steam is rising from the river since it is far warmer than the air above. The sun has just risen above its most southern point (winter solstice).
December 21, 2024 at 2:44 PM
mtwiss.bsky.social
“Clean up on isle Ottawa…”.
(psst…@ottawacity.bsky.social)
Noticed a salt dump that ought be gathered up. We know that salt makes slippery sidewalks safer but those spruce trees are stuck near this. Kindly clean up. Merci bien.
About 500 kg of halite (road salt, sodium chloride, NaCl) dumped on a snow covered urban green space. Location of a salt dump on a public park in the City of Ottawa, as indicated by the bus stop. Also, someone put a t-shirt on the sign that says “futur”. Poignant.
December 16, 2024 at 12:15 AM
mtwiss.bsky.social
This what happens when an ice free #LakeSuperior happens to have very warm surface water at this time of year when cold winds blow from the west. This is Sault Ste Marie, ON. (nice sauna if you can get to it.)
A small backyard with a building that is a sauna. The access to the door is challenging because there’s been a heavy sustained snowfall. A five foot high wood pile topped with a couple of feet of snow and buried at its base with the same.
December 2, 2024 at 11:21 PM
mtwiss.bsky.social
We (Algoma University, Lake Superior State University and several other institutions) are studying the impact of petroleum spills in the #GreatLakes with an emphasis on the #winter condition. See image ALT for more details. Thanks to NRCan for funding support. N
A view east of Baawaating (Sault Ste Marie) at dawn in November showing a water sample bottle from an experimental system designed to determine the impact of petroleum products, here marine diesel, in aquatic life forms in the water. In the background is a downbound ship from Lake Superior. The bottle contains water sampled from a high marine diesel experimental treatment and it is reflecting the sunrise at dawn and the distorted image of the ship, which is propelled by marine diesel.
November 28, 2024 at 12:11 AM