A Day for Right Whales
A ripple in the seawater quite close-by the beach drew their attention. Suddenly, an enormous black head rose. Gazing their way was a huge eye the size of the softball. The right whale wheeled forward and disappeared beneath the waves. Later, a right whale breached. Its entire body came out of the water and, rotating, it splashed down on its backside sending up curtains of spray. The right whale breached many times over the course of about an hour.
This close encounter with a right whale on a Provincetown shore happened to the Delaney family on April 24, 2004, the day after Ramona’s 93-year-old grandmother’s funeral. That day, they found solace when the spirit of life shined brightly in a majestic right whale. For Ramona & Mat Delaney, and daughters Katrina and Erica, April 24 will always be right whale day, a time for remembrance and gratitude.
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Join us in calling for passage of the Massachusetts Right Whale Day legislation. Beacon Hill is holding off until the last days of the session to consider designation of days including the right whale day. Now is the time to speak up if you would like to formally recognize this magnificent animal.
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At the Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Challenge at Sudbury Coffee Works are, from left, Ocean River Institute summer interns Anand Fedele (UMass Amherst) Sophia DiPietro (Barnard College) and Zeke Cochin (UMass Amherst).
Sudbury Coffee Works hosts Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Challenge
Sudbury Coffee Works hosted the Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Challenge on Tuesday, June 14. In the challenge, people participate in a friendly competition with Concord-Carlisle to pledge to keep established lawns natural by forgoing the use of quick-release fertilizer, chemical pesticides and herbicides.
Ocean River Institute (ORI) summer interns Anand Fedele (UMass Amherst) Sophia DiPietro (Barnard College) and Zeke Cochin (UMass Amherst) distributed natural lawn stickers featuring a worm and beneficial springtail. They also invited people to tell their legislators to support a bill to create Massachusetts Right Whale Day April 24 (H.3869).
Sudbury residents can save money on lawn care while saving bees and the organisms that contribute to healthy soil and plants: worms, microbes, archaea, springtails, nematodes, rotifers, and tardigrades. Grass plants are fed by fungi and bacteria as part of the vast mycorrhizae network called the “wood wide web.”
Residential lawns that are not fertilized or watered have been found to have 36 species of plants and 94 species of bees when the lawns were cut every two weeks. There were fewer bee species when lawns were cut every three weeks. Apparently, more bees prefer the shorter grass.
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At the Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Challenge at Brothers Brew Coffee Shop are, from left, Ocean River Institute summer interns Sophia DiPietro (Barnard College), Zeke Cochin (UMass Amherst), Anand Fedele (UMass Amherst) and Aditi Mukhopadhyay.
Brothers Brew Coffee Shop Hosts Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Challenge
Brothers Brew Coffee Shop hosted the Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Challenge on Tuesday, June 14. In the challenge, people participate in a friendly competition with towns to pledge to keep established lawns natural by forgoing the use of quick-release fertilizer, chemical pesticides and herbicides.
Ocean River Institute (ORI) summer interns Aditi Mukhopadhyay, Anand Fedele (UMass Amherst) Sophia DiPietro (Barnard College) and Zeke Cochin (UMass Amherst) distributed natural lawn stickers featuring a worm and beneficial springtail. They also invited people to tell their legislators to support a bill to create Massachusetts Right Whale Day April 24 (H.3869).
Communities with a significant number of residents pledging to not spread quick-release fertilizer on lawns (with the option of one application of slow-release fertilizer in the fall or spring) experience three improvements. First, lawns without fertilizer no longer pollute our waterways to fuel harmful algal blooms and ocean dead zones. Second, natural lawns form strong symbiotic relationships with fungi and soil organisms to draw down more carbon dioxide and store more carbon. Third, natural lawns host many species of plants, bees, and much wildlife to provide a natural oasis and corridors for wildlife.
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Here at the Ocean River Institute, we don’t just talk about the need to fight climate change. We’re using all of our knowledge about the threats we face to press others to take bold action.
And bold action is exactly what the world needs in the fight against climate change. Who's in your corner?
Publications in 2021:
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We succeed by working together with other organizations and communitity groups. The Ocean River Institute is the only organization that raises a cacophony of diverse voices to decision-makers. When you speak out on any one of our campaigns, you are heard. Thanks to those of you who took the time to make a pledge and write a comment. You are opening the doors of committees and the minds of politicians who are just looking for a way forward to climate justice.
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For healthy oceans, watersheds, and wildlife diversity. |
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