TICKED MEGA SALE MAKES SPLASH ON SURFSIDE OFF

An invasive species of tick from the Far East was discovered on Nantucket for the first time this spring. The Asian longhorned tick, which was first detected in the United States in 2017, has made its way to the island. The discovery was made by Dr. Sam Telford, a professor with Tufts University’s Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health. The bad news? The Asian longhorned tick can quickly establish itself once it is introduced to an area as female ticks are able to lay eggs and reproduce without mating. The good news? The Asian longhorned tick is less attracted to human skin than other ticks and is not likely to contribute to the spread of Lyme disease. Telford said Asian longhorned ticks pose far less risk to the island’s human population than the more common deer tick or the lone star tick, which was also recently detected on Nantucket. While the discovery is interesting, Telford emphasized that he was far less concerned with Asian longhorned ticks than Nantucket’s existing population of deer ticks that transmit Lyme disease and other tick-borne pathogens. “It’s another tick, another part of our fauna,” Telford said. “It doesn’t mean you need to be afraid to go outside. Enjoy Nantucket, just take precautions.”

Floating 14 miles off Nantucket, its nearly 300-foot-tall cranes visible to the naked eye from the South Shore, the heavy lift vessel Orion began work on installing the first monopiles of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm. According to the company behind the first-of-its-kind project in U.S. waters, 62 of the foundation monopiles will be installed this summer, each spaced one nautical mile apart. When complete, the GE Haliade-X turbines