Great Lakes passenger steamers Lakes) and a high-speed catamaran running between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Muskegon, Michigan. An international ferry ran on Lake Ontario from Rochester, New York to Toronto from 2004 to 2005, but it was plagued with high operating costs and low demand. The privately owned company was taken over by the City of Rochester, and the ship was sold overseas where it operated across the Strait of Gibraltar. Cruise ship traffic on the Great Lakes increased in the early-21st century, with ships like the MS Hamburg, the MS Saint Laurent and the smaller ships of the Great Lakes Cruise Company offering multi-day
Great Lakes Areas of Concern Great Lakes Areas of Concern Great Lakes Areas of Concern are designated geographic areas within the Great Lakes Basin that show severe environmental degradation. There are a total of 43 areas of concern within the Great Lakes, 26 being in the United States, 17 in Canada, with five shared by the two countries. The Great Lakes, the largest system of fresh water lakes in the world, are shared by the United States and Canada. They make up 95% of the surface freshwater in the contiguous United States and have 10,000 miles of coastline (including connecting channels, mainland and islands)—more than