News and Events for Nantucket Island
• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay, Director, University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station • Two photos accompany this article and they may look like an elaborate gimmick or hoax but they are photos taken by Tyler Bradbury and Mike Strazzula of a giant oar fish that washed up on Nantucket […]
• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay – Director, University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station • As tourists and summer residents start streaming back to the island, Nantucketers are emerging from our hobbit holes to bask in the sunnier and warmer days like a pack of painted turtles and all this […]
• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay – Director, University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station • On April 22nd we will celebrate the 45th Earth Day. It is hard to believe that 45 years have passed since the first Earth Day. As citizens of the planet, we have come a long […]
• by Dr. Sarah Oktay, Director, University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station • 2014 has been an interesting and eventful year for the world of Nantucket nature. Winter Storms on Nantucket In March we had a serious winter storm similar to the doozies we endured in February and March of […]
• by Dr. Sarah Oktay, Director, University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station • They’re back! Two great white sharks tagged in 2013 have returned to our waters over the past week. Katharine and Betsy were tagged by scientists with the well-known Massachusetts based shark research group OCEARCH (http://www.ocearch.org/) in August […]
• by Dr. Sarah Oktay, Director, University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station • The milkweed plants are everywhere, waiting to host one of their primary users, monarch butterflies. Hundreds of other insects occupy the plants using every inch of them for food and shelter. Two years ago I wrote about […]
• by Dr. Sarah Oktay, Director, University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station • I finally got to do something quintessentially ”Nantuckety” today for the first time in the eleven years that I have lived here, namely pick beach plums. I stumbled upon a bush laden with purple fruit and was […]
• by Dr. Sarah Oktay, Director, University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station • Well, I wish I was reviewing a 1979 Neil Young and Crazy Horse album (although that would be a bit weird and not all that timely), but in fact I am talking about the rust tide which […]
Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) has announced the winning names of their annual critter-naming contest. This year, participants went to bat to name a rare calico lobster and an African tortoise. From 149 choices, MMA’s staff selected the name Mze (pronounced M-zay) for their Bell’s hingeback tortoise. “Mze is a Swahili […]
