Nantucket Land Council 2019 Water News

NANTUCKET LAND COUNCIL

2019 Water News PLANNING

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PROTECTING

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PRESERVING

INSIDE this ISSUE • Harmful Algae Blooms–What you need to know!

• Eelgrass Restoration–Growing a sustainable harbor ecosystem • Water Fund Board Matching Challenge

SUPPORT THE NANTUCKET LAND COUNCIL WATER FUND

BY DECEMBER 31, 2019 AND DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT! See page 5 for more

RESEARCH NEWS Nantucket Eelgrass Health

Nantucket Land Council 508.228.2818 www.nantucketlandcouncil.org BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lucy S. Dillon, President Paul A. Bennett, Vice President William Willet, Vice President Howard N. Blitman, Treasurer Neil Marttila, Assistant Treasurer Susan E. Robinson, Clerk Matt Anderson Susan Baer Mary Randolph Ballinger Larry Breakiron William S. Brenizer Karen K. Clark Christine Donelan Joshua Eldridge Robert Friedman Nancy Gillespie Nathanael Green Charles A. Kilvert III Laurel Ried Langworthy Matthew B. Liddle Peter McCausland Kettie McDonald Eileen P. McGrath Carl H. Sjolund H. Brooks Smith Lars Soderberg David Troast Peter Watrous

STAFF

Emily Molden, Executive Director emily@nantucketlandcouncil.org RJ Turcotte, Resource Ecologist rj@nantucketlandcouncil.org Meg McNeely Browers Development Director meg@nantucketlandcouncil.org Shari Santos, Bookkeeper Design by: Gioiosa Design Harvard, MA, www.gioiosadesign.com Printed On Recycled Paper

The Nantucket Land Council has taken a leading role in assessing the health of eelgrass populations in Nantucket Harbor. In 2018 Dr. Alyssa Novak, Associate Research Professor at Boston University, led a health assessment of meadows at six sites throughout Nantucket Harbor. Novak and NLC staff evaluated physical characteristics of the eelgrass as well as nutrient content of the plants and surrounding sediments. Sedimentation rates were also characterized at three locations and data on light and temperatures within the water column were monitored. While performing this research the NLC also worked with Novak to test a method of transplanting eelgrass to restore the meadows off Monomoy Beach where they once flourished. The NLC will perform a similar assessment of eelgrass health in Madaket Harbor in 2020 and will establish long term monitoring transects with the global monitoring network, SeagrassNet. Given the long term eelgrass declines around Nantucket waters and increased pressures from nutrient loading, boat use and climate change, it is critical that we monitor our eelgrass and continue working on ways to support its longevity in our marine ecosystems. The results of our 2018 Eelgrass Health Assessment can be found at www.nantucketlandcouncil.org.

Cover Image: Fabien Cousteau and NLC staff planting eelgrass in Monomoy

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RESEARCH NEWS Harmful Algae Blooms in our Ponds Land use practices directly impact our water bodies through run-off and groundwater pollution. Nutrient loading in our freshwater ponds has created degraded conditions that can lead to algal blooms. While algae is a natural and necessary component of aquatic food webs and ecosystems, too much can lead to poor water clarity, unappealing recreational conditions and at times a dangerously low oxygen environment for fish. Blue green algae (or cyanobacteria) can also bloom as a result of high nutrient levels and warming waters. These cyanobacteria can produce toxins that may be harmful to humans and pets, and so the proliferation of them is known as a Harmful Algae Bloom (HAB). The Nantucket Land Council monitors our great and smaller ponds and is taking a focused look at these HABs and whether they are, in fact, producing harmful toxins at levels of concern. This water research will ultimately provide important data relative to these aquatic environments as well as to the health and safety of Nantucket visitors and residents. In the meantime, residents and their pets should take precaution and avoid contact with pond water when a bloom is present.

Algae bloom in Miacomet Pond

Herring Sampling in Nantucket’s Great Ponds Matt Devine, fish biologist and PhD student, returned to Nantucket for his second summer to sample river herring in the Great Ponds—an NLC research project to help support river herring as an important bait fish throughout the northeast. These anadromous fish return to our ponds each spring to spawn, but regionally they are in decline. Sampling in June and August was a great success. Our research shows that adult river herring entered both the Hummock and Long Pond systems and successfully spawned. We documented both species of river herring (blueback herring and alewife) in both ponds. Hummock had a higher relative abundance than Long, and juvenile fish were using a variety of habitats in both systems including the head of each pond as well as lower reaches toward the barrier beaches. Juveniles in both Hummock and Long are experiencing adequate growth and have reached sizes of greater than 85mm (3.5”).

The Land Council hopes to use the data from this research to help Nantucket make more informed pond management decisions relative to these important anadromous fish species.

River herring sampled from Hummock Pond

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COMMUNITY NEWS NLC Collaborates with Fabien Cousteau & Ocean Learning Center

The Land Council 45th Annual Meeting events were held August 8-10 with special guest speaker Fabien Cousteau, of the Ocean Learning Center. Fabien, grandson of Jacques Cousteau, is a world renowned oceanographic explorer, ocean conservationist, and documentary filmmaker. Cousteau spoke about marine ecosystem restoration efforts both on Nantucket and globally, and the importance of localized efforts like the NLC eelgrass transplant project in Monomoy for global awareness, education and rehabilitation of our world’s natural resources.

The NLC and Cousteau, along with the Ocean Learning Center, Nantucket Clean Team, Maria Mitchell Association, and Strong Wings Adventure School hosted a thorough Community Beach Cleanup on the South Shore.

At the weekend’s featured program— a special Eelgrass transplant day at Monomoy beach, participants were able to learn about eelgrass and its role in the harbor ecosystem, then head out into the water to plant a special eelgrass transect as well as snorkel out to the NLC Eelgrass Transplant location just off of Monomoy’s second pier to see the results of our first season of transplants.

Participants prepping and planting eelgrass in Nantucket Harbor

Thank you to Zoe Georgiou, Justin Green and Fabien Cousteau for partnering with us to present these free programs to the public. Also, a special thank you to Matt Anderson, Ben Phillips, Nantucket Clean Team, Maria Mitchell Association, Strong Wings Adventure School, Nantucket DPW, Peter Brace, Glenn Masser, The Sunken Ship, The Shimmo Homeowners Association, Carl Sjolund, Dr. Alyssa Novak, and all our amazing volunteers and participants for their contributions.

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The Water Fund

The Nantucket Land Council is Nantucket’s leading voice for the protection of our vital water resources including our groundwater, freshwater wetlands and ponds, and our harbors and marine resources. In 2019, thanks to your support, we continued a series of critical research projects including our eelgrass restoration project and a harbor-wide eelgrass health analysis (see page 2), in addition to an island-wide harmful algae bloom research project in our ponds (see page 3).

Thanks to the Water Fund, we welcomed Matt Devine, Ph.D. candidate at UMass, back to the island this summer as he continues our Herring research (page 2) in Hummock and Long ponds. Our green crab research continues with population monitoring in both Nantucket and Madaket harbors.

We can’t do this critical water work without your support! You can help with a donation to our Water Fund—use the enclosed donation envelope.

Join the Water Fund with a donation today!

Water Fund

THANK YOU TO OUR WATER FUND FOUNDERS CIRCLE WHO MADE DONATIONS OF $5000 OR MORE

FOUNDERS Circle

Susan and Michael Baer William and Margaret Brenizer Heinz Family Foundation Evan and Cindy Jones The McCausland Foundation Alan and Virginia Nathan

The Overbrook Foundation Lars and Jane Soderberg Meredyth and Brooks Smith Visco Pumping, Inc Anonymous Anonymous (2)

SUPPORT THE NANTUCKET LAND COUNCIL WATER FUND

BY DECEMBER 31, 2019 AND DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT!

Make your donation count! All gifts to the NLC Water Fund up to $60,000 will be matched via a generous NLC board matching grant until December 31, 2019! Use the attached donation envelope to help us protect and preserve Nantucket’s water resources!

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SCIENCE NEWS Studying the Invasive European Green Crabs in our Harbors The Nantucket Land Council has continued monitoring the European green crab population in 2019, with an eye toward the future.

This invasive species, brought over from Europe in ballast water over a century ago, can wreak havoc on Nantucket’s harbor ecosystems.

Moving forward, the NLC will complete more targeted monitoring of the population, with analysis of substrate types, eelgrass cover, and water depth’s influence on the crabs. If you’d like to get involved with our green crab monitoring program, please contact our Resource Ecologist RJ Turcotte at rj@nantucketlandcouncil.org.

Juvenile European Green Crab

Plastic Pollution

In 1989, the Nantucket Land Council supported the first official plastics ban on the island, and today continues to work with the Town and other local organizations to support the 2018 Single Use Plastics Ban that goes into effect June 1, 2020. It is crucial that our coastal communities reduce and eliminate their use of disposable plastics as much as possible as we continue to see the impact that widespread microplastic pollution has in our environment. The NLC supports microplastic research currently being conducted by the Nantucket DPW, UMASS Boston and ReMain. Their collaborative effort will be targeting microplastics in the beach and nearshore environment. The NLC will conduct additional sampling throughout the harbors and waters adjacent to beach sampling sites for comparative analysis as we begin to better understand how microplastics are affecting us here on Nantucket.

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EVENT NEWS State of the Harbor Forum Nearly 200 community members attended our 3rd Annual State of the Harbor Forum this summer. The NLC hosts this annual symposium to help inform our year-round and seasonal community on the important ecological issues challenging our harbor.

At this year’s forum, the NLC brought a panel of experts to the forum to discuss marine ecosystem restoration including the Town of Nantucket’s oyster restoration project in Shimmo, the NLC’s eelgrass restoration project in Monomoy, the NCF’s salt marsh restoration project in Medouie Creek, and future considerations for the protection and preservation of Nantucket Harbor. Nantucket Conservation Foundation’s Dr. Jen Karberg, Leah Cabral, Jeff Carlson, Thaïs Fournier of the Town of Nantucket Natural Resources Department, and Dr. Brian Von Herzen of The Climate Foundation and the Great Harbor Yacht Club’s Scientific Advisory Committee joined NLC Executive Director Emily Molden for the panel presentation and discussion.

OYSTER FARM & HARBOR TOURS Join us next summer on an Oyster Farm & Harbor Tour. Dates will be announced in the spring at nantucketlandcouncil.org

Thank you to Great Harbor Yacht Club, Nantucket Shellfish Association, Stephen Visco/Visco Pumping, Inc, Anderson’s Stillwater Moorings, and an anonymous donor for sponsoring this year’s State of the Harbor Forum.

Photo credit: Roger Vandenberg

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NANTUCKET LAND COUNCIL

2019 Water News PLANNING

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PROTECTING

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PRESERVING

Post Office Box 502 Nantucket, MA 02554 www.nantucketlandcouncil.org

JOIN US! 1st Annual Nantucket Oyster Fest

Saturday, November 30

2nd Annual Friends Fete

Friday, July 10, 2020