Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative Returns This Weekend

The Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative is hosting its biennial research conference this weekend, with events spanning three days and covering a number of topics related to the natural environment.

The conference kicks off on Halloween with a free keynote address by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences research scientist Dr. Beth Orcutt, titled “Mysterious and Creepy Deep Sea Biodiversity - What is There to Preserve?”

This seasonally-themed keynote address is intended not just for scientists and researchers, but for the whole community.

“We want not just scientists to come and people from the conservation organizations to come, but everybody from the community to come and feel welcome,” Nantucket Conservation Foundation director of research Danielle O’Dell said. “We're kind of going all in, encouraging people to dress up and wear costumes and bring candy.”

The Nantucket Conservation Foundation is one of many local conservation organizations that are part of the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative, now in its 21st year. Other members include the Trustees of the Reservation, the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, the Maria Mitchell Association, Mass Audubon, Nantucket Walkabout, the Town of Nantucket, the UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station, the Nantucket Land and Water Council, the Nantucket Land Bank, the Nantucket Shellfish Association, the Tuckernuck Land Trust, and Nantucket Memorial Airport.

The initiative, comprised of essentially every power player in local conservation, provides small research grants to encourage people to include Nantucket as part of their studies.

“It's a way for us all to get together and collaborate,” O’Dell said. “We all collaborate, of course, anyway, but it's a nice way for us all to collaborate in a different way.”

After the keynote, Saturday will be dedicated to an all-day conference featuring a variety of talks by a number of different scientists on topics including eel grass, scallops, birds, ticks and deer.

Anyone from the public can also attend this conference, but there is a $50 charge, which covers attendance, food, and trips around the island sponsored by the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative the following day.

O’Dell said she is particularly interested in getting high school students to attend. She said that if interested high school students reach out, they won’t be charged for admission.