Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Welcomes Tara Riley, Emma Morgan, Dr. Rich Blundell, RJ Turcotte, and Charles Johnson as March Science Speaker Series

March 11, 2025

NANTUCKET, MA—The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) announces that it will host Tara Riley, Emma Morgan, Dr. Rich Blundell, RJ Turcotte, and Charles Johnson, with moderator, Joanna Roche, for a panel discussion on monitoring Nantucket Harbor’s water quality for its March Science Speaker Series. The panel presentation will take place on Wednesday, March 19 at 7pm via Zoom. This event is free to all.

 

“Harbor Health: A Collaborative Approach to

Water Quality Monitoring on Nantucket”


Join us for an engaging panel discussion on water quality monitoring in Nantucket Harbor. The discussion will feature: the Town of Nantucket (ToN) Shellfish and Aquatic Resources Manager, Tara Riley; ToN’s Water Quality Specialist, Emma Morgan; MMA Scientist, Dr. Rich Blundell; Nantucket Land and Water Council Waterkeeper, RJ Turcotte; ToN Storm Water Manager, Charles Johnson; and be moderated by MMA Executive Director, Joanna Roche. During this panel discussion, you will learn about the Nantucket Harbor Monitoring Project, a 2024 water quality monitoring initiative launched by the MMA, now expanding in collaboration with the Town of Nantucket Natural Resources Department and Nantucket Land and Water Council. The initial project, generously funded by the ReMain Nantucket Fund at the Community Foundation for Nantucket, the Great Harbor Yacht Club Foundation, the Osceola Foundation, the Sociable Weaver Foundation, and through collaboration with the Town of Nantucket's Harbormaster, aims to establish a continuous water quality monitoring system for Nantucket’s lower harbor. The data collected thus far provides a vital baseline for ongoing environmental assessment and conservation efforts. Thanks to ongoing generous support from the Great Harbor Yacht Club Foundation, we’re excited to expand upon this project in collaboration with the Town of Nantucket and the Nantucket Land and Water Council and to continue our work to protect and preserve Nantucket’s beautiful harbor. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from local experts in resource and conservation management and learn more about how this project is helping to safeguard our treasured harbor for future generations. 


Tara Riley is the Shellfish and Aquatic Resource Manager, for the Town of Nantucket Natural Resources Department – Brant Point Hatchery. After obtaining a degree in Marine Biology and a Masters in Fisheries and Aquaculture, Riley has had twenty-five years of experience in the field of producing saltwater fish and shellfish for research, profit, and now restoration. She has been involved in regional and global hatchery renovations and has served as a consultant for WHOI for the development and operation of a hatchery in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Since coming to Nantucket in 2009, Riley has worked on the development and implementation of shellfish enhancement initiatives and water quality and habitat monitoring for Nantucket Island’s waters. By 2015, she had garnered enough community support and stakeholder buy-in to secure funding for the 2-million-dollar design and renovation of the Brant Point Shellfish Hatchery. As a hatchery specialist, she designed and installed the internal hatchery components to create a fully integrated year-round shellfish hatchery. Riley has been intimately involved in the development of the town’s first shellfish management plan and now the town’s first eelgrass management plan. She is passionate about everything related to recreational and commercial fisheries and strives to create a more sustainable and healthy future for Nantucket’s natural resources.


Emma Morgan is the Water Resource Specialist for the Town of Nantucket's Natural Resources Department. Morgan earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from St. Mary's College of Maryland, followed by a Master of Science in Applied Coastal Ecology from the University of Central Florida. Her job on Nantucket focuses on managing the Town's water quality monitoring program, which involves sampling the island's recreational waters, monitoring harmful algal blooms, analyzing water quality data and trends, and collaborating closely with science organizations on and off the island to maintain the health of Nantucket's water bodies.


Dr. Richard Blundell is the Visiting Scientist at the Maria Mitchell Association and is an ecologist and philosopher working at the convergence of art, science, nature and culture. As the founder of Oika, his research examines how transformation happens across the scales of person, place and planet. As a communicator, Rich tells a scientific story of the universe that includes art and human creativity as natural phenomena. Dr. Blundell’s research and work has received numerous grants and awards including, an ongoing TIDES innovators award, The National Science Foundation grant for Science Out There, the Michael Brinkman Award, The Deep Time Values video award for An Earth Story, The Macquarie University Innovation in Scholarship award for The Cosmosis1 Explorer app, an Oculus Creators Award for In the Light of the Forest VR, and nomination for the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival Best New Media for Saving Grey’s Zebra. Blundell’s creative video work has appeared on PBS, National Geographic and numerous social media platforms. He is currently the Visiting Scientist at the Maria Mitchell Association.


RJ Turcotte has worked for the Nantucket Land & Water Council for the last six years, first as Resource Ecologist and then as the Nantucket Waterkeeper. He started his career in Rhode Island with Save The Bay and the Blackstone River coalition, assisting with salt marsh restorations, environmental education, and heading a volunteer water quality lab. As Waterkeeper, he works on eelgrass restoration, water quality monitoring, coastal resilience and environmental advocacy across the island community.


Charles Johnson is the Stormwater Manager for the Town of Nantucket’s Sewer Department. Charles has recently been asked to oversee the Town’s Stormwater System for the Nantucket Sewer Department. He has been working for the Sewer Department for 7 years as Treatment Plant Operator and Engineering Compliance Officer. For the 17 years prior to working year-round on Nantucket, he taught Mathematics, Tech Ed. (boatbuilding and STEM classes) to high school students in New Haven and Bridgeport, CT. During that time, he coached sailing and coached and started a Girl’s Ice Hockey Program in Guilford, CT. with his daughter. Before returning to school for a Teaching Certificate in CT, he worked as an Environmental Engineer, first with the DEP’s for New Jersey and Connecticut, and then for private consulting firms. Charles graduated from Lehigh University with a degree in Civil Engineering, is a Registered Professional Engineer in the States of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and as a Grade 7 Wastewater Operator in Massachusetts. He was first taken in by the beauty and the water quality of Nantucket Harbor when vacationing with his family on Brant Point in 1970 and has vacationed here summers at his wife’s family summer cottage in Quidnet since 1975. He keeps his boat in Polpis Harbor and enjoys sailing, swimming and fishing.


Pre-registration is required to attend Zoom. To register for Zoom, use the registration link below: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IIhpmYJIQmSb057MJoR0YQ#/registration

 

This series is generously sponsored by our lead sponsor, Bank of America.

 

The Maria Mitchell Association was founded in 1902 to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. After she discovered a comet in 1847, Mitchell’s international fame led to many achievements and awards, including an appointment as the first female professor of astronomy at Vassar College. Maria Mitchell believed in “learning by doing” and today that philosophy is reflected in the MMA’s mission statement, programs, research projects, and other activities. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages.

###

For Immediate Release

February 18, 2025

Contact: Jónelle Gurley

jgurley@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

Open For The Season June 11!

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 1, 2026
The Mitchell House and the entire MMA is opening for the season on Thursday, June 11, 2026! Come see what is new, come see things you have missed before, and come meet our new interns who will be with us for the summer! We are excited to have ALL our doors back open for the summer! For more information on classes, workshops, walks, children’s classes and camps, and our museum/site schedules, please find out more on our website! JNLF

A Good Chair

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 18, 2026
A repost from long ago – because I still like a good chair. Quite awhile ago, I wrote about some of my collection addictions, including pottery shards, 19 th century kitchen mirrors, and of course, enamelware. Well, here is another one for you. I love chairs. Yes, this is another collection addiction of mine. But not all chairs – chairs from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Typically, I like plain, simple wood chairs with a horizontal piece or two of wood for the back and a plain, thick wood seat. Simple, not a lot of turns to the wood, and not a lot of decorative features or paint. Several years ago, I had a meeting at the home of the leader of a group I was working with. She owned the Obed Macy house, very much untouched and quite a remarkable house. Yes, Obed was the Nantucket historian (among other things), as well as the son of island entrepreneur Judith Macy, and the nephew of the island “she-pirate” Kezia Coffin. We met outside on the side porch which was a late 19 th century addition to the house and one that certainly reflected what life was like in the period it was added to the house. The owner had brought out every chair in her home. I was on a chair high (not a highchair!) – here I had my choice of nineteenth chairs to sit on. Since I was one of the first to arrive, I took my time picking out which chair I was going to sit on – I kid you not. I was like Goldilocks − though I was grown-up enough not to sit on every chair to decide which one I was going to claim for the meeting! I went on and on and likely on and on about all these lovely chairs to her. Unfortunately, the day came several years later when she was faced with having to sell her beloved home to move off-island. She called me. She wanted to know if I wanted any of her chairs since she remembered how much I went on and on about them. It was a mixture of emotion because losing this island resident was a loss for the island and for its history and historic architecture. I went to her home a few days before she was going to have her sale and helped her move items from the house out onto the lovely 19 th century side porch where I first reveled in her chair collection and also out into the large, simple backyard that looked like it too had not been touched since the 19 th century. She told me to take whichever chairs I wanted as she wanted me to have them. Depressing. I told her I would not take but that I would buy. We had a little back and forth but she finally relented. Then, I had to choose and it was quite agonizing. Not wanting to be a chair hog, I limited myself. I now have two matching and two others sitting around my dining room table made from salvaged Nantucket pine floorboards. We refer to them as “Helen’s chairs” – their previous owner. She likely found them here on Nantucket; one or more may have even come with the house when she bought it. We eat every meal sitting in them, spend time with our family in long discussions and laughter sitting in them, and each time I sit, touch, dust, or move them, I think of Helen and the house these chairs once sat in and the conversations and people they must have witnessed over the many years. A simple wood chair – a witness to history and time. JNLF

The Ancient Vine

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 11, 2026
A repost – with my apologies – from last year. It started budding the week of April 30 this year. This is what our landscaper for the MMA calls it. “The ancient vine.” He tells the people who work for him not to touch the “ancient vine.” I have probably made him – and all of them – terrified of it. I am even terrified of it to some degree. I refer to the grape vine behind the Mitchell House that is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell Junior’s grape vine – Maria Mitchell’s uncle who inhabited the house from about 1836 to his death in 1882. It has two trunks but one died several years ago. Because of that, each year I try to root shoots. It’s fairly easy to do – when you cut back the vine in late fall/early winter. I have had success but not success protecting the shoots I baby all winter from bunnies and other critters once I plant them – try as I might. I started doing this when the one trunk died – I was PANICKED! The landscaper stays away because I have told him if anyone is going to accidentally harm or worse yet, kill, this grape vine it would be me so I only have myself to blame. So each November/December – once ALL the leaves have fallen off – I climb my ladder and quietly, carefully, and fearfully cut back the stems typically to two buds. I have been somewhat successful in spurring grape production – and these grapes attract some amazing birds in the fall. It takes me some time – and I pretty much hyperventilate the entire time – and then, I stare at it all winter. Passing under it multiple times a day to reach my office. Hoping, and yes, praying, it will come out in the spring. It’s a late budder so just recently the buds started to show themselves – thank goodness! – and I was rewarded today (May 5, 2025) with this wonderful hot pink color on the edges of the leaves as they are uncurling. JNLF
Show More