GIBRALTAR ISLAND

Home Of The Ohio Sea Grant

STONE LAB, Gibraltar Island is a Lake Erie campus for students and researchers studying critical issues facing the lake. Those include nutrients and harmful algae blooms; invasive species like zebra mussels; microplastics and marine debris; climate change impacting ice and water levels; and emerging contaminants like pharmaceuticals. Gibraltar Island is a “complex ecosystem,” says Chris Winslow, director of Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab. The 6.5-acre island is offshore from South

Bass and is part of Put-in-Bay Township, though you won’t find recreational ferry service and marinas open to the public since it is an education and research site. That said, a water taxi from The Boardwalk on Put-in-Bay departs for guided tours of Gibraltar Island on a weekly basis. And more than 3,000 students grade 5 to 12 take field trips there in spring and fall. Some of the excursions are overnight and kids stay in the dorms.

FUN FACT. The island was a summer retreat for Civil War financier Jay Cooke and his family in the mid to late 1800s. Cooke’s daughter sold it to Julius Stone, who gave the island to The Ohio State University. The lab is named for Julius’ father, who was a naturalist.

TOUR THE ISLAND. Thursdays June 29 to Aug. 17, meet at the Boardwalk Restaurant dock 15 minutes prior to the start time. Tickets are $12 in cash per adult, $6 for children, plus $8 for roundtrip fare to Gibraltar Island, payable to the water taxi driver. Tours run from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. ohioseagrant.osu.edu/visit/gibraltar