The Great Lakes

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The Great Lakes — Superior, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Erie — make up the largest body of fresh water on Earth, accounting for one-fifth of the freshwater surface on the planet at 6 quadrillion gallons. The area of all the Great Lakes is 95,160 square miles and span 750 miles from west to east. The square mileage is larger than the state of Texas.

The lakes, called "the nation's fourth seacoast," are on the U.S. and Canadian border, touching Ontario in Canada and Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. As of 2017, more than 30 million people live in the Great Lakes basin, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This equates to 10 percent U.S. residents and 30 percent Canadian residents. More than 3,500 species of plants and animals inhabit the Great Lakes basin, as well, including 170-plus species of fish.

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