Friday, January 23, 2026
The annual State of the Great Lakes 2025 report has been released.
The report is a collaboration between the governments of Canada and the United States and provides an overview of the status of and trends affecting the Great Lakes ecosystem.
The Great Lakes “continue to be an excellent source of drinking water and beaches are safe for swimming and recreational use throughout much of the swimming season. There has been tremendous progress to restore and protect the Great Lakes, including the reduction of toxic chemicals and the reduction in the establishment of new non-native aquatic species,” a post on Binational.net, the website for the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement said.
Some indicators demonstrate that there are still significant challenges, including the impacts of nutrients, especially in Lake Erie and localized areas of the other lakes, and the impacts of invasive species, especially the ongoing effects of Zebra and Quagga Mussels,” the post added.
Overall the Great Lakes have been assessed by State of the Great Lakes indicators as “Fair” and the trend is defined as “Unchanging.”
A suite of nine indicators of ecosystem health are used to assess the state of the lakes, based on indicators such as drinking water, fish consumption and beach closures, the post said.
Lake Superior’s status was judged as “Good” and “Unchanging, and Lake Huron was rated “Fair to Good” and “Unchanging”.
Lake Ontario was rated also rated “Fair” and “Unchanging,” as was Lake Michigan.
While Lake Erie’s walleye hatches from previous years continue to support recreational and commercial fishing, is has ben assessed as “Poor” and “No Trend” due to elevated nutrient concentrations and persistent algal blooms.
Over 200 government and non-government Great Lakes scientists and other experts worked to assemble available data and help prepare the report.
The report is available here.
