Impact

Since the first buoy deployment I have used the data provided almost daily. The information I use most is wind direction and speed, water temperature and thermocline, wave height, and the history of all. I use the data for my charter and scuba business to determine that the conditions are safe for my customers and family.

I use your site constantly to check water temps and lake conditions [it’s a] really good tool for fishing Lake Michigan.”

I use your realtime data to safely, recreationally fish Lake Michigan off of Wisconsin Ports. The data not only gives me safety info but also a better fishing experience.”

I live in Chicago area and swim during the summer every day that the weather allows. I use GLOS data every day; actually check the buoys hourly to determine wind direction & strength as well as wave height and temperature to see if it’s going to be safe for me to swim.”

These data allow students like me to work with actual observations, understand Earth’s systems, and develop skills important for future careers in science and research.

Thousands of students, educators, researchers, and coastal communities rely on this information daily. Losing these resources would create serious gaps in education, research, safety, and decision making for people across the country, not just in the Great Lakes region.”

I use the reports everyday to see if it’s safe to go out on our great lakes the buoys are very important for wave heights and water temperature very important to have this information.“

I’m a member of a boating community that universally recognizes the usefulness and importance of accurate marine information.“

While operating fishing charters on Lake Michigan, I rely on weather buoys to safely navigate shifting lake conditions.

Integrating buoy locations with real-time lake conditions helps ensure passenger safety, vessel control, and productive fishing across a dynamic and often unpredictable body of water.“

A few times a year, I get to round up the family and head to the piers on Lake Michigan. Anyone who has fished for salmon or trout from shore on a big lake knows that there are windows when fish will be around.  Without glos.org, I would be aiming blindly at a calendar.  For my kids, and myself, knowing the conditions is important.”

I’m a kayaker that is only trying to get more active and go more places. This weather information is critical not just for comfort but for safety. The available models and the accuracy of prediction can be key to planning a trip effectively. Knowing the current conditions is key to not getting caught out in a dangerous situation, like big wave height and/or intense storms. Lives will be lost of this information becomes unavailable.”

I wanted to thank GLOS for all they do for residents like us that are on the shore of the big lake and voice my support for the Seagull app.

We’re avid standup paddlers…It’s important for us to know about the conditions out there. Is it even safe to go in the first place? Are we going to need a wet suit? Is it going to be sunny? Is it going to be windy?

I’ve been super impressed with the site. I’m a recreational angler, but I’m also a DNR fisheries person here in Michigan, so I’m constantly talking to anglers and giving them places to look for information.

It’s invaluable to the angling community. Once they discover a platform like this and they can find that information, it saves everybody time and money and effort.

It’s incredible what you can know ahead of time before you head out on the water. I’d like to see it expanded.

NEW Water was able to upgrade our long-term monitoring platforms into near real-time buoy stations in 2021 and 2022, and integrating our platforms to the Seagull network was a really seamless transition.

Having our data on the Seagull platform has been a great way to share our buoy data not only with others around the Great Lakes, but it’s an easy-to-use platform for recreators in Green Bay to get all available real-time data for the bay.

We’ve been able to connect Great Lakes DataStream with Seagull to make data even more accessible and easy to find.

For the many monitoring groups using DataStream to publish their data, this means a broader reach and impact of their efforts…[Seagull is] a fantastic addition to the Great Lakes data sharing ecosystem.

The information given by these buoys is critical in our go/no go decision process.

I work on [a rescue boat] owned and operated out of Mackinac Island. We depend on Buoy 45175 for real-time data on wave conditions and check it before every trip. The information given by these buoys is critical in our go/no go decision process.”

I use [lake] information even a day ahead of time so I can tell my customers whether they should take the trip out to Sheboygan.

Without that, it’s technically a guessing game. The real-time report that you have at your buoy, it’s number one for me.

As captains, our number one job is to make sure our guests are safe.

The Great Lakes are the US and Canada’s greatest asset. What makes the Great Lakes strong is the ability to work and share together for the greater good. GLOS makes this possible.”

Seagull promises to harness the internet of things to turn data into actionable information and insights.

I use the wave and wind data to plan boating. I usually boat between City Bay in North Hero and Butler Island. The buoy gives great information about local conditions.”

I really appreciate the water temp readings on [buoy] 45026 as it gives me a very good prediction of water clarity on a shipwreck located about a mile away from the buoy.”

Pretty much everyone I know who fishes for salmon uses the buoys religiously for that purpose.

The temp profile is a very nice means to provide a starting point for temp thermoclines and possible depths to start running your downriggers based upon temp… Pretty much everyone I know who fishes for salmon uses the buoys religiously for that purpose.”

I wanted to thank GLOS for all they do for residents like us that are on the shore of the big lake and voice my support for the Seagull app.

We’re avid standup paddlers…It’s important for us to know about the conditions out there. Is it even safe to go in the first place? Are we going to need a wet suit? Is it going to be sunny? Is it going to be windy?

These buoys are a great resource! I look at these often for my boating and fishing trips and have many times made a different decision based upon the buoy data versus relying on general weather, wind, and waves forecasts.

Before discovering the buoys, sometimes it was too rough for our family, and we made unnecessary trips to the lake. [Buoys provide] more predictability and understanding of exact lake conditions for safer, more successful boating and fishing trips.”

Seagull is the best app for understanding current lake conditions before launching the boat. Because of it, many people have avoided launching in poor conditions, for their own safety.

These are real, right-now conditions that determine whether I go fishing on Lake Michigan or not.