05/22/2026
It’s Thunder May in Thunder Bay. ⛈️⚡
Around the office, the team calls it "Thunder May" because this is the time of year when everything hits the "water" at once. From prepping research vessels and deploying buoys to monitoring shipwrecks and hosting a massive regional underwater robotics competition, the pace never slows!
This photo captures just one week of Thunder May featuring our core team alongside some incredible partners:
🔵 Future Pros: College students from Northwestern Michigan College were on-site learning from our team as they finish their degrees in Marine Technology.
🔵 Extra Hands Underwater: Divers and specialists from NOAA Channel Islands and NOAA's Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuaries and NOAA Ocean Exploration helped us deploy shipwreck buoys faster and install acoustic tracking devices. Plus they provided dive support during the regional robotics competition!
🔵 Expanding the Network: Representatives from NOAA's Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary spent the week learning the "ins and outs" of our education programs and ROV (remotely operated vehicle) competitions to bring those ideas back to their shores!
🔵 Increasing Output: Team members from NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory supported the effort (and continue to this summer) to map the sanctuary lakebed.
🔵 Core Team Thriving: The main sanctuary team is made up of employees from Friends of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, State of Michigan, and federal, all working together under one mission.
Protecting these Great Lakes resources and engaging as many people as possible to discover Shipwreck Alley requires a team effort, and it is always fun to have guests contribute to the mission. ⚓🌊
