The heartland USA waters which are the subject of the article below are well outside the geographic focus of the Salty Southeast Cruisers’ Net, but so many of our readers and contributors are interested in cruising the “Great Loop, and are members of the American Great Loop Cruisers’ Association Forum (http://www.greatloop.org/), we wanted to share this disturging news from Skipper Mike Ahart of Waterway Guide http://www.waterwayguide.com/

On February 5th, legislation was introduced to congress that would authorize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to permanently close the waterway between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system to prevent Asian carp and other destructive species from reaching Lake Michigan. The act would effectively close America’s Great Loop Route if no other alternatives were implemented.
The “Defending Against Aquatic Invasive Species Act of 2014” (H.R. 4001), introduced by Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI), would “authorize the Secretary of the Army to carry out certain activities to prevent the interbasin transfer of aquatic invasive species between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, and for other purposes.” The three-page bill was assigned to a congressional committee, which will consider it before possibly sending it
on to the House or Senate as a whole, according to the bill overview.
The bill would require that hydrologic separation of the two water systems be designed “not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act,” and that construction would commence “not later than 180 days after
the date on which design activities undertaken…are completed.”
The recently passed waterway bill, Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2013 (WRRDA), had no mention of measures to stop the spread of Asian carp, which had been outlined specifically in the U.S. Senate version.
If a permanent barrier is put in place, existing transfer ports would be modified to accommodate commercial shipping (cargo is usually off-loaded from freighters to barges already); however, smaller shipping vessels and
pleasure craft would be severely impacted unless and until systems are built allowing those to be lifted, ramped or railed from the Great Lakes system to the river system — about 41,000 non-cargo vessels transit the locks per year, according to the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study. (Transfer costs, vessel size and weight limits, and other details have been discussed, but no guidelines have yet been developed, as far as I have determined.)
Here’s the link, if you want to read more:
http://www.waterwayguide.com/newsupdate.php?area=11&id=3382

I currently have my family on the Loop. We are on the adventure of a lifetime in our 30′ Sailboat.
This is no doubt in my mind that closing the loop would destroy an economy that depends on the river traffic and Loopers to make a living. If the loop were closed and traffic was no longer allowed to transit the area, it would hurt the barge traffic as well. The whole proposition of closing the loop completely sounds extreme, tragic, and a job killer. In this economy, it would kill people who lose their businesses.
Can we beg Politicians who can’t seem to create jobs to at least stop destroying them for once?
Terry Day

This just in from our good friend, Skipper Susan Landry, co-author of “The Great Book of Anchorages” series (http://www.tgboa.com/), including their new volume on Bahamian Anchorages! Excellent books – REALLY!
Anyway, the first link below to the “wind map” will be of use to virtually every coastal cruiser, while the “current map” will be more valuable to blue-water mariners!

A while back we shared the Earth map with almost real time wind flow,

http://earth.nullschool.net/

and now along comes currents,

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/orthographic

These are way, way, cool.
Susan Landry

We copied this amusing graphic from our friends on the St. Augustine Cruisers’ Net (https://www.facebook.com/groups/staugustinecruisersnet/). Great stuff!