Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association’s Fourth Annual Green Crab Week 2023

August 1, 2023

Join the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association for a week of fun and informative programming about the invasive European Green Crabs! Events will include chances to hunt, capture, recycle, and even eat green crabs! Our Fourth Annual Nantucket Green Crab Week is August 6 – August 12, 2023.


Green Crab Identification Workshop and Derby Information Session

No registration required
Monday, August 7, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM FREE
Join us at the Maria Mitchell Association Aquarium to learn how to identify green crabs! We will compare them to local species and show you how to tell their sex. This is also a great opportunity to seek advice about the Third Annual Nantucket Green Crab Derby!


Nantucket Green Crab Survey: Bait & Line

Registration Link: https://112458a.blackbaudhosting.com/112458a/Nantucket-Green-Crab-Survey-Bait- and-Line-Method

Tuesday, August 8, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM FREE
Join Maria Mitchell Association Aquarium Staff on a survey for invasive European Green Crabs! This survey will be a part of the MMA Nantucket Green Crab Community Science Survey that you can do yourself at any time! In this session, we will be using the bait & line method.

This program will meet at the Madaket Beach Parking Lot.


Green Crab Fertilizer Workshop with the Nantucket Land Council

Thursday, August 10, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
In collaboration with the Nantucket Land Council, please join us for this free, fun, and exciting way to help control the population of the invasive Green Crab, all the while creating an environmentally friendly fertilizer for your garden. For people to make their own Green Crab fertilizer, they should bring completely waterproof boots they're comfortable crushing dead crabs with, as well as a sealable bottle or jar to take home their fertilizer. We will provide crabs, coolers, vinegar, and take-home fertilizer instructions.


Third Annual Nantucket Green Crab Derby!

Registration Link: https://112458a.blackbaudhosting.com/112458a/Annual-Green-Crab-Derby

Friday, August 11, 12:00 AM – 4:00 PM, $10 per team of 4
Help the Maria Mitchell Association and the Nantucket Land Council fight the Green Crab invasion by participating in the 3rd annual Nantucket Green Crab Derby! Participate in a team of up to 4 to help us maintain healthy marine habitats and for a chance to win prizes! Rules and prize details are detailed in the reservation process.


Nantucket Green Crab Survey: Wading & Hand Net

Registration Link: https://112458a.blackbaudhosting.com/112458a/Nantucket-Green-Crab-Survey- Wading--Hand-Net
Friday, August 11, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM, FREE

Join Maria Mitchell Association Aquarium Director, Jack Dubinsky, on a survey for invasive European Green Crabs! This survey will be a part of the MMA Nantucket Green Crab Community Science Survey that you can do yourself at any time! In this session, we will be using the wading with hand net method. This program will meet at the Hither Creek Beach Access (Around 24 Massachusetts Ave.)

 

For Immediate Release

August 1, 2023

Contact: Grace Baisley

marketinginterns@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • April 13, 2026
April 1878. The conference of Woman’s Congress officers met in Washington. Because we had one member in Washington we were invited to meet in that place. I went on at a great expense of time, money and strength . . . . We were in session at least nine hours. I think that more than half of that was used by Mrs. Spencer and Mrs. Sayles. The only motion which I carried through was to pay the Secretary $200 . . . In 1878, that was a long train(s) ride to Washington, DC from Poughkeepsie, NY and Vassar College. If Maria seems perturbed, I am sure she was. As president of the Association for the Advancement of Women, and thus the Congress, she had to be at the meeting. But it appears she did not get much say in the nine hour meeting. This was also a long trip to take when she had another, even longer trip coming up in July of 1878. In that month, she would travel with students and her sister, Phebe, out west to Colorado to view the eclipse and that train and wagon ride I am sure was weighing on her mind – not just the physical trip but making her way for an important eclipse viewing event. JNLF

Raise The Roof!

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • April 6, 2026
Well, actually replace the roof! With funding from the Community Preservation Act and the work of Lydon and Sons, Inc. the Mitchell House is getting a new roof. The current one had come to the end of its useful life. A cedar roof can last a long time – longer than asphalt – and is more historically accurate. The roof we are removing was installed in about 1992 – replacing a roof from the 1930s that was not cedar but a combination of materials that actually yes, did last sixty years. The unfortunate issue has arisen that the roofwalk (walk) has to be replaced. This is NOT the original walk – nor that old of a walk. It’s likely from the 1970s or so and has been cobbled at over time. It’s not a functioning walk – no one is allowed on it – but the Mitchell House needs it none the less. Maria Mitchell and her father, William, likely used the walk for astronomical observations – in addition to the yard – but the walk is also protected as part of the preservation easement on the House. Walks – NOT and NEVER called widow’s walks – were used for preventing and putting out chimney fire and roof fires. In a place where wood was expensive and had to be brought from “the main” these were purely utilitarian. What good Quaker (or non-Quaker) would build a platform for his wife to stare out to the harbor to see if her husband was on his way home? The other issue is that the walk was completely resting on the ridge board – and actually was notched to accept the pitch and tip of the ridge board so they couldn’t work around it. I suspect this may have been the ways walks were once built – and also a crafty and smart thinking carpenter who came up with the idea. It makes the walk lower. But between that issue and the age of the walk and then the blizzard of February 2026 that packed gusts over 83 MPH (that’s Category 1 hurricane winds) the walk gave in. Balusters had been knocked out and the railings were loose and pulling away from the posts. So, we will also be working with Barber and Sons to create a new roofwalk – and they agreed to do this for us quickly which is also no small feat given how busy everyone is these days. So from the bottom of the Mitchell House’s heart (and mine) a big thank you to Chris Lydon and Lydon and Sons and crew, Barber and Sons / Beau and Nate Barber, the Community Preservation Committee, and Nantucket Preservation Trust (our easement holder)! JNLF

Keep Calm and Bird On: April 2026

April 1, 2026
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.” -Edith Andrews
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