Oika Research: Nantucket Eelgrass & pH

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) plays an essential role in maintaining the health of Nantucket Harbor. This flowering seagrass has been shown to sequester carbon from the water column and therefore mitigate ocean acidification locally (Rickart et al, 2021). Such elevation of pH may become essential for the continued productivity of Nantucket’s economically valued bay scallop (Argopecten irradians).

In Summer 2024, the Maria Mitchell Association (MMA), with the help of Great Harbor Yacht Club and others, launched the Harbor Monitoring Project. As MMA's visiting scientist-in-residence - and with the help of the Oika Research Vessel - Oika ecologist Dr. Rich Blundell oversaw the deployment of a state-of-the-art oceanographic buoy that continuously measures pH, nutrient levels, dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity and chlorophyll in the water column. 

The same summer, Blundell also oversaw the "deployment" of an artist, Rita Leduc, into the water. As part of Oika Research: Nantucket Eelgrass & pH, Leduc immersed herself in the eelgrass ecosystem to collect visual data that reflected the many sensations of relationality she felt at different levels from the sea floor. The resulting artwork expresses a lived-experience of relationality between Leduc and Nantucket Harbor’s eelgrass ecosystem. 

Oika Research investigates the ecological intelligence of nature and then links local culture and ecology systemically to local economies. To accomplish this with Nantucket Eelgrass & pH, proceeds from the inaugural sale of the project's artwork are distributed equally between the artist, the conservation group sponsoring the project, and Oika Research. The long-term value of the artwork is then algorithmically linked to the pH as measured in real time by the buoy. 

By intertwining scientific data with artistic data, Oika Research: Nantucket Eelgrass & pH communicates the continuity between the health of the harbor and the health of our human condition.