Pandora's Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway
The St. Lawrence Seaway was considered one of the world's greatest engineering achievements when it opened in 1959. The $1 billion project-a series of locks, canals, and dams that tamed the ferocious St. Lawrence River-opened the Great Lakes to the global shipping industry.
     Linking ports on lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario to shipping hubs on the world's seven seas increased global trade in the Great Lakes region. But it came at an extraordinarily high price. Foreign species that immigrated into the lakes in ocean freighters' ballast water tanks unleashed a biological shift that reconfigured the world's largest freshwater ecosystems.
     Pandora's Locks is the story of politicians and engineers who, driven by hubris and handicapped by ignorance, demanded that the Seaway be built at any cost. It is the tragic tale of government agencies that could have prevented ocean freighters from laying waste to the Great Lakes ecosystems, but failed to act until it was too late. Blending science with compelling personal accounts, this book is the first comprehensive account of how inviting transoceanic freighters into North America's freshwater seas transformed these wondrous lakes.

1100869409
Pandora's Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway
The St. Lawrence Seaway was considered one of the world's greatest engineering achievements when it opened in 1959. The $1 billion project-a series of locks, canals, and dams that tamed the ferocious St. Lawrence River-opened the Great Lakes to the global shipping industry.
     Linking ports on lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario to shipping hubs on the world's seven seas increased global trade in the Great Lakes region. But it came at an extraordinarily high price. Foreign species that immigrated into the lakes in ocean freighters' ballast water tanks unleashed a biological shift that reconfigured the world's largest freshwater ecosystems.
     Pandora's Locks is the story of politicians and engineers who, driven by hubris and handicapped by ignorance, demanded that the Seaway be built at any cost. It is the tragic tale of government agencies that could have prevented ocean freighters from laying waste to the Great Lakes ecosystems, but failed to act until it was too late. Blending science with compelling personal accounts, this book is the first comprehensive account of how inviting transoceanic freighters into North America's freshwater seas transformed these wondrous lakes.

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Pandora's Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway

Pandora's Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway

by Jeff Alexander
Pandora's Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway

Pandora's Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway

by Jeff Alexander

eBook

$29.95 

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Overview

The St. Lawrence Seaway was considered one of the world's greatest engineering achievements when it opened in 1959. The $1 billion project-a series of locks, canals, and dams that tamed the ferocious St. Lawrence River-opened the Great Lakes to the global shipping industry.
     Linking ports on lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario to shipping hubs on the world's seven seas increased global trade in the Great Lakes region. But it came at an extraordinarily high price. Foreign species that immigrated into the lakes in ocean freighters' ballast water tanks unleashed a biological shift that reconfigured the world's largest freshwater ecosystems.
     Pandora's Locks is the story of politicians and engineers who, driven by hubris and handicapped by ignorance, demanded that the Seaway be built at any cost. It is the tragic tale of government agencies that could have prevented ocean freighters from laying waste to the Great Lakes ecosystems, but failed to act until it was too late. Blending science with compelling personal accounts, this book is the first comprehensive account of how inviting transoceanic freighters into North America's freshwater seas transformed these wondrous lakes.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781628951035
Publisher: Michigan State University Press
Publication date: 05/01/2011
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 465
File size: 15 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jeff Alexander has been an award-winning environmental journalist for over 25 years. Jeff was awarded the 2009 Historical Society of Michigan State History Award (Pandora's Locks). His book The Muskegon received a Michigan Notable Book award, Historical Society of Michigan State History Award, and ForeWord Book of the Year Award.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PREFACE TIMELINE PROLOGUE 01/ DOMINION 01/ CONQUERINGNATURE 02/ VAMPIRES OFTHE DEEP 03/ SALT IN THEWOUND 04/ ALEWIFEINVASION 05/ A KING ISBORN 02/ PLAGUE 06/ FATAL ERROR 07/ DANGEROUSCARGO 08/ THE RECKONING 09/ RUFFE SEAS 10/ SMOKE ANDMIRRORS 11/ MELTDOWN 03/ THE DREISSENAEFFECT 12/ SOMETHINGAMUCK 13/ BLUE, GREEN,AND DEADLY 14/ A CRUELHOAX 15/ CASPIAN SEADIET 16/ WHITEFISH ANDGREEN SLIME 17/ PARADOX 18/ FEAR THIS 04/ BETRAYAL 19/ DIRTY SECRETS 20/ WHO’S INCHARGE? 21/ MISSIONIMPOSSIBLE 22/ SEAWAYHERETICS 23/ WESTWARD HO! 24/ SAVINGPARADISE EPILOGUE NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

What People are Saying About This

Eric Reeves

"[Pandora's Locks] tells the twisted story of this exotic disaster - and the story of our abject failure to prevent it - in a manner more complete and more understandable than any other work which is likely to ever be written."--(Eric Reeves, Ph.D., J.D., Cdr., U.S.C.G. (Ret.), former U.S. Coast Guard staff officer for Great Lakes ballast water policy.)

Dave Dempsey

"...skillfully chronicles how the realization of a centuries-old dream of a commercial shipping passage between the Great Lakes and saltwater seas has spawned an invasion of foreign fish, pathogens and other unwanted that has damaged native fisheries, killed birds, and cost the public billions of dollars to control...Alexander's writing is as compelling as his conclusion."--(Dave Dempsey, Conservation Minnesota)

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