2026 Summer Season Highlights
One of the busiest times of year for the Great Pond Foundation team is during the summer season. All hands are on deck to make sure operations run smoothly and efficiently. We have weekly early morning pond monitoring, outreach events, collaborations and more all while keeping up with the fast pace of the Island. Check out some of our highlights from this summer…
2026 Summer Science Interns – Thank You!
Each year our Summer Science Interns help with weekly monitoring, sample processing, outreach, and more while also working on their own projects. We would not have been able to get all our work done without them. Thank you to Robert Simpkins and Aynsley Zamore for your hard work!
Robert Simpkins is a rising sophomore at the University of Miami majoring in Marine Biology and Ecology. He grew up in Falmouth but spent many summers in Oak Bluffs and loves the island and its natural beauty. He has grown up going to many events in Woods Hole and being surrounded by marine research which has nourished his love for the environment and science. In the future, he hopes to research diverse marine ecosystems and help restore them. Robert previously worked for the Oak Bluffs and Tisbury Shellfish departments through the Lagoon Pond association, where he mostly focused on aquaculture and regulations. He is very excited to join the Great Pond Foundation this summer and learn more about water quality as well as help restore the Islands ponds.
Aynsley Zamore is a rising junior at Colgate University, majoring in Environmental Biology and Studio Arts. She hails from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and has been coming to the island her whole life, staying on Tisbury Great Pond. In the future, she hopes to work in ecosystem conservation or environmental policy. Her past research experiences include studying ecology along an elevational gradient in the tropical rainforest and understanding soil nutrient fluctuations with changing climates. These experiences in the field are how Aynsley gained an appreciation for the natural world. When she is not at GPF, Aynsley can likely be found sailing on Tisbury Great Pond, playing pickleball, or exploring a new part of the island.
Summer Seine Net Events
Great Pond Foundation hosted two summer seine net events this year! In July we had our annual seine net event in collaboration with Friends of Sengekontacket and Island Spirit Kayak. This year we had around 75 participants’ join us to explore the life within Sengekontacket Pond.
In August we joined Lagoon Pond Association for our second seine net event. Held at Doug’s Cove, Lagoon Pond, staff and participants collected, identified, measured and recorded all species caught in the seine net.
The July event was in support from Mass Cultural Council and MV Community Foundation. The August event was in support from MV Bank and MV Community Foundation.
Intern Swaps
This summer the Great Pond Foundation team had the privilege of participating in two intern swap days! In July we hosted the Trustees summer environmental interns. They joined our team on Edgartown Great Pond to help us collect water quality data and cyanobacteria samples. After being in the field, they processed the samples in our lab.
We also hosted interns from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. They explored Edgartown Great Pond and learned about different water quality tools and how we measure each parameter.
Our science team then had the opportunity to join them at the Huber lab in Wood Hole to learn about life, particularly viruses, in high pH mud volcanoes.
Eelgrass Monitoring
The summer of 2026 brought very encouraging signs for Edgartown Great Pond. Eelgrass has returned to several regions of the pond and appears noticeably more abundant than it was in 2025. Eelgrass patches appeared fuller and more established. In June, during a recreational swim near Swan Neck, a team member discovered something especially exciting: an eelgrass meadow growing along the shoreline.
The discovery of this meadow has opened the door to a new monitoring collaboration with SeagrassNet, a global network that tracks seagrass ecosystems using standardized scientific protocols.
