By Moira Harrington

I can be a sucker for those retro special effects you see in older movies — animated planes circling the globe leaving behind a dashed line to represent travel stops or a teeny-tiny King Kong, as seen from a distance, scaling the Empire State Building. One of my favorite tropes is pages of a calendar flipping and flying off in all directions.

Because our own calendars will flip from 2017 to 2018 soon, I am starting to feel that same sensation of frenetic energy coupled with a sobering realization that time is passing and reflection is in order. I’m coming up with resolutions to put in place as Father Time hands off the hourglass and scythe to Baby New Year.

Not surprisingly, I have resolved to help people see how they are connected to our Great Lakes and coastal areas and why it’s important to be the stewards of them. I’ve gotta do it for a lot of reasons and this list, courtesy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, only scratches the surface of Great Lakes facts:

1.  Shared with Canada and spanning more than 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) from west to east, these vast inland freshwater seas provide water for consumption, transportation, power, recreation and a host of other uses.

2.  The Great Lakes are the largest surface freshwater system on the Earth. Only the polar ice caps contain more fresh water.

3.  The lakes provide 84 percent of North America’s surface fresh water.

4.  The lakes represent about 21 percent of the world’s supply of surface fresh water.

How does my resolution manifest itself? Well, it’s part of my job but it’s also part of my passion. If past is prologue, I can take a healthy stab at this. Here’s a look at what my colleagues in communications and I produced last year to showcase Sea Grant. During the 12 months ahead, we resolve to meet or exceed these efforts. Revisit some of the communications products listed below and then keep tabs on us throughout the Year of the Dog. One of those resolutions even involves a plank.

- Go into streams and fish hatcheries, through video, to learn about a deadly fish disease and what it means for the $1.4 billion in annual fishing-related revenue for the state.

- Soar above Lake Michigan bluffs, through video, and find out why some of them are crumbling into the waters below.

- Plug your ears into an award-winning audio podcast series about groundwater.

- Check out what it means to be green, through green infrastructure, compliments of this beautiful guidebook.

- Hold us accountable and examine our program summary one sheet.

-  Peruse the cavalcade of Sea Grant work splashed out in quarterly issues of our program newsletter.

- Make a fish dinner using a plank as described in this fact sheet.