A frisson on water-focused excitement ran through a recent poster session on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The River Talk series continues this month on Wednesday Nov. 8, 7 p.m. at the Lake Superior Estuarium (3 Marina Dr., Superior, Wis.). Matt Steiger, Area of Concern coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, will present: “What’s Happening on the St. Louis River? Current Cleanup and Restoration Projects.”

Wisconsin Sea Grant educators have come up with a new tool for middle-school teachers and students to use. All it takes is a coat hanger, water and some thought.

The Remotely Operated Vehicle engineering pack, or ROVe pack for short, has students building underwater ROVs in teams with hangers, and figuring out how to keep them underwater with the correct neutral buoyancy. The coat hanger ROV design was first developed by Harry Bohm at the Marine Advance Technology Education Center and Wisconsin Sea Grant Education Specialist Kathy Kline used it to develop a neutral buoyance activity for outreach events.

Wisconsin Sea Grant Researchers Hone in on Walleye, Saugeye.

he Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Minnesota and Wisconsin Sea Grant programs are starting the fifth year of science café-type evening talks about the St. Louis River Estuary in October. Control of the invasive weed, phragmites, in the estuary is the topic of the first River Talk of the 2017-18 season. These informal public talks will be held monthly through May at the Reserve’s new Estuarium interpretive center on Barker’s Island in Superior.

A new summer program for youths in Milwaukee can boast of several “firsts” on a national and local level, plus it formed strong bonds between the instructors and the students.

Wisconsin Sea Grant provides support to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility, which in turn has supported the work of a new $20 million aquaponics operation raising Atlantic salmon in the northwestern part of the state.

Gene Clark, Wisconsin Sea Grant’s coastal engineer, is included in a grant recently funded by the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program and led by the Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Department to design, construct and demonstrate floating staircase sections for a 130-foot bluff in Virmond County Park in Mequan, Wisconsin. If and when additional bluff movement or erosion happens, the staircases would not be destroyed, and could simply be repositioned so that they are level.

From 2013 to 2016, Lake Michigan water levels rose four feet. The high water levels affected — and still are affecting — the stability of coastal bluffs and beaches. Concerned residents in Mt. Pleasant, Wis., looked for help, and they needed it fast, before the next storm struck and waves did further damage. Learn how Sea Grant and other agencies responded to the crisis.

Wisconsin Sea Grant will contribute to a new three-year federally funded project to increase resiliency in the face of Lake Michigan water levels, erosion and coastal storms.