By Eliot Baker
I&M Staff Writer
Scientists representing various island organizations presented their research on Nantucket’s water quality at a forum held at the Coffin School last Tuesday put on by the Nantucket Community Association and ReMain Nantucket.
The forum was timely. The rust-tide algal bloom that’s been linked to a severe die-off of last year’s juvenile bay-scallop population re-emerged in recent weeks and became much more thick following last week’s heavy rains.
Marine Department shellfish biologist Tara Riley said that her aerial views indicated the algae, Cochlodinium polykrikoides, had become more dense and widespread, running in wide bands from the Chord of the Bay, all along the shoreline and the Head of the Harbor throughout Coskata Pond and Polpis Harbor.
“It definitely looks a lot different than it did last time I went up” for a survey two weeks ago, said Riley, adding that she hadn’t seen evidence yet of damage to the island’s shellfish populations. “It’s a lot thicker and the bands are a lot wider.”
Riley was unable to speak at the event as she was performing her bay-shellfish propagation work at the Brant Point boathouse. Harbormaster Dave Fronzuto presented her research, which involves growing millions of larvae of oysters, quahogs and Nantucket’s precious bay scallops and then releasing them in strategic places recommended by throughout the harbor, using oil booms.
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