NEESKAY'S NEW CAPTAIN HAS PANTHER BLOOD

You can’t thoroughly study the Great Lakes from atop the water because most of the action lies beneath the surface. That’s why the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences has used a research vessel on Lake Michigan for more than 50 years.

And when the school was looking for the Neeskay’s newest captain, it didn’t have to go far to find him.

Max Morgan earned his master’s degree in freshwater sciences from UWM in the spring of 2021. In October of that same year, he became interim captain of the only year-round research vessel on the Great Lakes. He’s the first UWM alum to ever captain the Neeskay.

Morgan, a boat enthusiast since childhood, previously worked on the EPA’s Lake Guardian, a research vessel where he was head technician and operated the scientific equipment. He’s captivated by both the Neeskay’s physical capabilities and the science that the ship makes possible through its hydroacoustics, sonar and other technology.

“I like working with researchers because they come up with great ideas,” Morgan says. “Then, I have to devise ways to make what they want to do work in real life. To do this job, you need to know every single job on the boat, every little nuance.”

Max Morgan is the first UWM alum to captain the Neeskay.

Researchers rely on the Neeskay to monitor water quality, track invasive species and launch large remotely operated aquatic robots – all necessary to study the life and health of the lake. And without the Neeskay, UWM researchers couldn’t place some of the buoys that make up the Great Lakes Observing System.

These 6-foot buoys give real-time data on lake conditions and are used by scientists and the general public alike. Putting them into the water each spring and taking them out as winter approaches is a challenge.

It’s important that the buoys stay put, so Morgan must anchor each one with a pair of 500-pound railroad wheels and hundreds of feet of thick chain.

“The Coast Guard has to know each location, so you have to be fairly precise,” Morgan says. “You also have to get [the mooring] right so it’s there when you come back.”

The Neeskay began life in 1953 as an Army T-boat before being bought and converted to accommodate research in 1970. Today, it remains a workhorse, but an aging one.

That’s why fundraising is well underway for the Neeskay’s replacement, the stateof-the-art Maggi Sue.

“This new vessel will be much faster and larger,” Morgan says, “and we’ll also have something called dynamic positioning. That’s where I can put in coordinates and we can hold the boat in that exact position without dropping the anchor – even with high winds and strong currents. The new vessel will allow our scientists to venture to any part of the lake and expand the things that we can study.”

– Laura L. Otto