A rare underwater environment beneath Lake Huron will be opened to a worldwide audience today, Sept. 15, through a live exploration of the Middle Island Sinkhole. The livestream is scheduled for 11 a.m., with backup dates set for Sept. 17-18, according to The Alpena News.
The expedition will offer viewers an up-close look at a place that has generally been accessible only to advanced divers. Weather could force a last-minute change to the date or time, so organizers are directing viewers to follow Great Lakes Now and Hidden Below: The Great Lakes on social media for updates.
A sinkhole unlike other Great Lakes environments
The Middle Island Sinkhole formed over thousands of years after groundwater dissolved limestone beneath the lakebed. It drops 80 feet below the surface and contains a colorful ecosystem that researchers consider unusually important.
The water is extremely low in oxygen. That condition makes the sinkhole deadly to most other lake lifeforms, but it supports bacterial communities that create broad microbial mats across the bottom. The mats appear in purple, brown and white shades, giving the underwater landscape a distinctive appearance.
Researchers from around the world are interested in the site because it may offer clues about how life evolved on early Earth. Scientists also believe the ecosystem could help explain how the planet’s first oxygen-producing organisms changed the atmosphere.
How the livestream will work
Freshwater explorers and filmmakers Zach Melnick and Yvonne Drebert are partnering with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Great Lakes Now for what organizers describe as the first livestream from the underwater time capsule.
The team will use a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, fitted with high-resolution cameras. The vehicle will descend into the sinkhole while divers collect samples from the microbial mats. That technology will allow viewers to see the site without making the dive themselves.
Dr. Bopaiah Biddanda, an aquatic microbial ecologist from Grand Valley State University, will join the expedition. Biddanda has spent years studying the sinkhole’s unusual ecosystem. Sarah Morrison, a media specialist with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, will explain how the sanctuary supports researchers investigating the site.
Biddanda, Morrison, Melnick and Drebert are expected to answer audience questions in real time during the dive.
A broader Great Lakes project
Hidden Below: Live is a collaboration between Great Lakes Now and Inspired Planet Productions. The project is designed to bring interactive, real-time explorations of the Great Lakes to audiences around the world.
Earlier expeditions featured the deepest part of the Great Lakes and the fish-filled warm waters near North America’s largest nuclear power plant. The Middle Island Sinkhole livestream will add another look at the hidden environments beneath the region’s freshwater surface.