Stearns Beach's Dirty Little Secret

[XLFD]

On Sunday, August 11, 2024, an odd occurrence on a large section of Ludington's premier beach affected those who chose to spend the day there.  Starting a few hundred feet north of the lighthouse breakwater at Stearns Beach and then extending several hundred feet thereafter, areas of murky water replete with a gross salad of dead fish, zebra mussels, dead plants, and seagull dung were draped at the edge of the very murky water, unfit for swimming.  

                                               Stearns Beach lakefront looking north from around the middle of the north beach

Near the lighthouse some hearty souls swam in what was a lot clearer water, perhaps not knowing that the unhealthy-looking spot with unhealthy looking water was less than a football field away and that they were in the prevailing current path.  Truly this was only noticeable once you traveled along the lakefront because it was not visible until you got close to it and noticed the filth and smell.

                                              Middle of Stearns Beach (north) lakefront looking south towards the breakwater

On Friday, large waves hit Stearns Beach and perhaps set the table for this situation to take place afterwards.  The Ludington Torch is unaware after research and consultation with a seasoned local expert about how this localized dead zone came to be, and whether it presents a health hazard for beach users during this time, but we do advise to be wary of this spot and careful when planning to swim at the city's beach, at least on the north side of the breakwater, until this situation disappears or can be properly assessed in terms of public health.

[Willy]

What a nasty mess. I hope the health dept. checks this out and can figure out it's origins. As bad as this looks it doesn't meet the smell test when alewives littered the beaches years ago and made visiting the beaches a stinky trip. Does anyone remember when our beaches were awash with garbage and trash which originated all the way from Wisconsin and  washed on shore causing a health problem. That trash include polluted medical supplies along with whatever nasty debris that could float. That was back in August of 2010.

[XLFD]

I remember that, I think we might even have pictures of that in our archives since that was during our first year of publishing the Ludington Torch.  This year's mess was a bit different than that, with barely any plant material or general garbage.  The muck on shore looked as if it was primarily made of zebra mussel shells and fecal matter, the nearby water was thick with the latter, it seemed.

But it was very local, so I think some sort of geological condition left over from the storm was created to make all the junk that normally gets dispersed throughout the rest of the water along the shores of Lake Michigan dumped in this one area.  You get beyond this anomaly and the beaches are clear and the water looks normal.