The vessel will come to a stop when the predetermined sampling station is reached, at a time decided on by the ship's command. The location and time of sampling will be recorded, as well as the environmental conditions. The trained crew members of the vessel will then use a YSI water quality sonde to collect data and that will be recorded. A Secchi disc with measurement indicators every 10 centimeters will then be deployed and recordings will be taken on both the upcast and downcast. A Van Dorn water sampler will then be used to collect water at a depth of 1 meter. Water samples are then transferred to 1 L polyethylene storage bottles or 2 L plastic storage bottles, and stored in a dark place at 4 ^oC until picked up by personnel on the same day. The samples will then be transported in coolers containing ice packs to Bowling Green State University (BGSU). Samples were also collected from Sandpoint Beach and Mitchell's Bay locations using the same methods and observational conventions. 

Sub-samples for chlorophyll a will be taken at BGSU using 0.4 um polycarbonate membranes and a vacuum filtration system. The filter will be placed in a screw cap polyethylene centrifuge tube and stored in a dark freezer until extraction. The samples will be extracted using 90% acetone and kept at -20 ^oC for 24 hours, and chlorophyll will be measured using a TD-700 fluorometer (Welschmeyer, 1994).

Total and dissolved nutrient samples will be held in acid-washed 250 mL polyethylene bottles, and stored in a dark freezer at -20 ^oC until they are ready to be analyzed. Dissolved nutrient sub-samples will be taken by filtering the agitated sampled water through 0.22 um filters. The data will then be shipped to the National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg University (Tiffin, OH).