Five years ago, when similar proposals were made to close the Great Lakes to ocean going ships (responsible for three-quarters of almost 200 invasives so far identified), proponents were ridiculed. This despite a study from Grand Valley State University that parallels Cox's findings....that the cost of transferring cargo was minimal compared to the damage it would prevent.

The cynic in my would say that support would not be so broad were a conservative president the one blocking the closure. The optimist takes the support wherever and however it comes!

I hope we are successful. And I hope a similar broad spectrum of support will be generated for securing the other end of our Great Lakes!

I also grew up on Lake Huron in NE Michigan and was privledged to be able to fish Huron.  But I also witnessed first hand how the DNR's inept and blind practices dealt with the threat and devastation of the cormarant bird population.  Even though these birds were protected by the feds the DNR did nothing to help the fisheries, the sportsman nor the islands off of Alpena that were decimated by the droppings of these scourges.

I personally witnessed the DNR do salmon and trout fingerling drops (350,000+ each) off of a shore in Thunder Bay only to watch cormarants flock in and eat them up until they couldn't fly.  The sportsmans clubs offered boats and manpower to do these drops in the evening when the birds would not be a factor but they were turned down because they would not pay overtime to the DNR officers and were worried about liability. Instead they kept on dumping the fish and feeding the birds.  Talk about a waste of money!