Maritime Transportation
The Great Lakes Transportation Corridor, often referred to as the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway, is an important transportation system of lakes, locks, canals and rivers connecting the center of North America manufacturing to the global marketplace.
Efficient transportation systems keep the U.S. competitive in global trade. Our basic labor and manufacturing costs are generally higher than our competitors, but our logistical skills and highly advanced transportation networks reduce overall costs to such an extent that it allows us to compete. continued…
World Maritime Day: Climate Change in the Maritime Industry
- Climate Change Focus of
World Maritime Day - World Maritime Day focuses attention on the importance of shipping safety, maritime security, and the marine environment.
- Great Lakes Shipping: Great Lakes Vessels and Fuel Efficiency
- Carrying cargo on water is energy efficient and generates less carbon dioxide than if the same cargo was transported over land.
Featured Articles
- The Seaway Turns 50!
- The modern Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System has supported maritime trade for 50 years, but there's more to the story. Read about a "remarkable engineering feat and model of binational cooperation."
- Ballast Water is Topic of Symposium
- Regulating ballast water discharges from ships is getting complicated. A Sea Grant symposium teased apart some of the challenges and opportunities that policies, technology, and the economy are creating for managing ballast water in the Great Lakes.
- Steel Corrosion Found in More Northland Harbors
- Deeply pitted steel has been found in several western Lake Superior ports, not only in the Duluth-Superior Harbor.
- Freshwater Ballast Testing Facility Opens
- Companies can now hook their latest ballast water treatment systems up to the world's first freshwater testing facility for ballast technologies, located on the shores of the Duluth-Superior Harbor.
- What's in the Ships?
- Read about the different cargos and ships that ply Great Lakes waters.
- Law Center Identifies Potential Leaks in Michigan Ballast Water Legislation
- Is it constitutional for states to regulate ballast water? Michigan tests the legal system to protect the Great Lakes.
- The Great Lakes Maritime Transportation System: Critical Energy for Change
- Take a look at how transportation system issues have changed, and stayed the same, over the past twenty years.
- Jumping Back Into the Harbor
- The Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute (GLMRI), founded in 2004, has allowed Minnesota Sea Grant to re-address the issues of ports, harbors and maritime industries.
- Harbor Corrosion: It’s the Pits
- The rapid aging of steel in the Duluth Superior Harbor puzzles even corrosion experts. Five specialists offer observations and advice to port officials, university and agency staff, and Sea Grant.
- From the Great Lakes to the Gulf
- In light of the recent ban by Great Lakes governors on water diversions, we thought you’d find this story about a historic plan for a canal between Lake Superior and the St. Croix River of interest.
Maritime Transportation Issues
- Ballast and Anti-invasive Species Technologies
- Flow through ballast systems and treatable ballast systems are two ways to help control the spread of aquatic invasive species.
- Duluth-Superior Port
- Protected by a natural sandbar, the Duluth-Superior Harbor holds the largest port on the Great Lakes.
Get a Load of This!
- 2008 Port of Duluth-Superior Stats
- 1,126 vessels called on the Duluth-Superior port.
69 were oceangoing ships (less than half of the salty traffic of 2007).
Tonnage for the season, which ended on January 12, 2009 was 45,640,002 short tons; 4.6% behind 2007. Despite the global economic downturn and drops in steel production and manufacturing during the latter part of 2008, record coal shipments and the reallocation of iron ore pellets kept the season's traffic relatively stable. Project cargo traffic, which includes wind turbine components and Canadian oil sands equipment, remained steady. The precipitous decline in grain movement, reflected in reduced "salty" traffic, is partially attributed to exceptional harvests in the Ukraine and Australia, which reduced the global demand for American grain. More...
Dale Bergeron
