• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay, Director, University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station • Spring has sprung, the island is filling up with people and warm sunny weather is erasing memories of a long hard winter. This is a perfect time to become aware of how your actions can effect […]
Island Science
Strange Visitors – Giant Oarfish
• 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 […]
Ticked Off on Nantucket – Deer Ticks
• 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 […]
Balloons Away
• 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 […]
Nantucket Nature Year in Review – 2014
• 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 […]
Katharine & Betsey – Great White Sharks Return
• 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 […]