Effort to map bottom of Great Lakes could reveal location of hundreds of shipwrecks: "There's a lot we don't know"

Jennifer Boehme grew up scouting beaches around her home in St. Petersburg, Florida, for whatever she could find. Rocks, sand dollars, coquina mollusks - anything the ocean gave up.

Now, 40 years later, Boehme wants to launch another treasure hunt. As executive director of the Great Lakes Observing System, she's leading a campaign to map every meter of the lakes' bottom. The effort, the marine scientist says, will pinpoint hundreds of underwater shipwrecks, illuminate topographical features and locate infrastructure. The map, she says, also will help ships avoid submerged hazards, identify fisheries and inform erosion, storm surge and flooding models as climate change intensifies.

"One of the things that keeps me going is the idea of the discovery aspect of it," Boehme said. "There's a lot we don't know about the lakes. We know more about the surface of the moon."