If you’ve spent any time on our Great Lakes you’ve no doubt seen one of the largest vessels on ANY body of water: the North American “Laker”, more commonly known as a “freighter.” These giant ships transport cargo across our Great Lakes navigation system from Duluth Minnesota to Ogdensburg, New York- almost 1,600 miles! Given the Great Lakes small footprint compared to the vast oceans our planet has, it’s easy to wonder why any shipping gets done on our fresh water at all, but with 63 commercial ports and almost 200 million tons of cargo moved annually on the lakes, it’s actually a very busy means of shipping.