{"id":186529,"date":"2026-05-07T20:38:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T20:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186529\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T20:38:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T20:38:52","slug":"noaa-research-ship-working-on-new-maps-of-western-lake-erie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186529\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA research ship working on new maps of Western Lake Erie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists and mariners are working on updated maps of the Great Lakes, with survey work done this year on the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"noaa-ship-slider.jpg<\/p>\n

NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson, seen mapping off the coast of Cleveland, Ohio, in 2022, along with a NOAA plane collecting lidar data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LCDR Michelle Levano\/NOAA<\/p>\n

The\u00a0National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said<\/a>\u00a0the Thomas Jefferson is making its first routes on the Great Lakes this summer since 2022, with the task of mapping the waters of western and central Lake Erie, along with eastern Lake Ontario.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The goal of this work is to improve navigation safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Western Lake Erie, one of the shallowest areas within the Great Lakes marine transportation system, is highly trafficked by commercial and recreational vessels and has not been surveyed since the 1940s,” NOAA said.<\/p>\n

\"noaa-great-lakes-mapping-plan2026-960.png<\/p>\n

NOAA mapping plan for the Great Lakes region.<\/p>\n

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/p>\n

Melting ice, currents, debris, and shipwrecks all contribute to constantly changing conditions underwater, NOAA said. Accurate seafloor mapping is critical for nautical charts, storm surge models, and fisheries planning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The work on the Thomas Jefferson will be complemented by efforts from an uncrewed surface vehicle near Oswego, New York. The DriX is equipped with high-resolution, multi-beam sonar, and a NOAA pilot oversees that work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists and mariners are working on updated maps of the Great Lakes, with survey work done this year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1131,136,138,137,262,260,41832],"class_list":["post-186529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-environment","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-great-lakes","tag-lake-erie","tag-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}