On a sunny morning in mid-June 2024, the Phoenix, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s research vessel, headed out onto the bay. Aboard were Sea Grant researchers Emily Tyner and Bill Sallak and a small mound of recording equipment. It was piloted by Chris Houghton, assistant professor and fish ecologist, who was assisted by first mate, undergraduate student Jacob Hoffman.

The bay tour was only supposed to last for three hours but like in the theme song for the “Gilligan’s Island” television show, a mishap was involved.

Tyner and Sallak’s project is associated with the development of a national estuarine research reserve on the bay. It will be the third reserve on the Great Lakes after Old Woman Creek in Ohio on Lake Erie and the Lake Superior Reserve in Superior, Wisconsin.

They planned to record natural noises from the bay, particularly bird sounds. Their target: the Cat Island Chain, restored barrier islands in the bay that have created new habitat for migrating and nesting shorebirds.

Tyner and Sallak plan to make the sounds of the bay available in a presentation and online. They hope it will connect the community to the bay, which has been shunned in the past due to environmental issues.