Tag: nature

Island Science

Winter Weather

• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay, Managing Director UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station • I am writing this article on an unseasonably warm Sunday in November. According to Weather Underground (http://www.wunderground.com ) which is usually my go-to source for weather data the maximum temperature was 57 degrees Fahrenheit on Nantucket […]

Island Science

Denizens of the Night

• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay, Managing Director UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station • Last June I wrote about moths here on Nantucket in preparation for a “moth party” and a public education effort to teach people more about moths and get folks excited about photographing them.  Since then I […]

Island Science

What Lies Beneath

• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay, Managing Director UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station • Mapping the Ocean Floor The UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station has the use of a new toy, and boy what a toy it is! In late August, Dr. Mark Borelli of the Provincetown Center for Coastal […]

Island Science

The Magical Island of Tuckernuck

• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay, Managing Director UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station • For the past two summers I have been fortunate to visit the Tuckernuck Land Trust’s (or TLT, website can be accessed at http://www.tuckernucklandtrust.org/) field station and do some basic biological collection (bees and mosquitoes) and give […]

Bay Scallops
Island Science

Bay Scallops, Nantucket Gold

• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay, Managing Director UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station • Nantucket is home to the last commercially viable “wild” bay scallop fishery in the U.S. (and essentially world-wide) and preserving this treasure is, in a way, tantamount to preserving Nantucket.  Other fisheries up and down the […]

Boring Sponge
Island Science

Sponges, Climate Change, & Bay Scallops

• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay, Managing Director UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station • We pulled up a common resident of our harbors the other day while doing a dredge for our Marine Ecology class off Pocomo Point. Scattered amongst the spider crabs and scallops and loose eelgrass and algae […]

Ghost Crab
Island Science

Ghost Crabs!

• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay, Managing Director UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station • The name of this week’s article sounds like an awesome indie horror film doesn’t it? Well ghost crabs are here and probably here to stay on Nantucket. Thanks to the eagle eyes of Manomet Center for […]

rabbits | Nantucket, MA
Island Science

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit

• by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay, Managing Director UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station • This week’s title comes from the British tradition adopted in New England to say “rabbit” or “rabbits” several times in succession or “white rabbit” upon first waking on the first day of the month in order […]

Nantucket Wheelers
Featured Articles

Reconnecting Seniors with the Outdoors

Imagine living on this beautiful island but being largely isolated indoors and unable to enjoy Nantucket’s natural beauty.  That is a reality for many senior citizens in nursing care here on Nantucket.  Nantucket Wheelers is a group of children, grandchildren, and friends who realized that Nantucket has more than 30 […]