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Keeping a High Profile

Sarah Treanor (holding the tall stadial rod) and Laura Domyancich (peering through the siting level)  of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation make dune and beach profiling observations with Sarah Oktay (standing behind Domyancich), director of the University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station. The volunteers are gathering data for WHOI Sea Grant coastal geologist Jim O’Connell—who is also a marine extension agent for Cape Cod Cooperative Extension—to track the long-term trends in beach growth and erosion due to winds, waves, tides, storms, sea level rise, and human activities. O’Connell and his volunteer coordinators have established a monitoring program in which citizens, waterfront homeowners, town officials, students, and teachers monitor monthly, seasonal, and pre- and post-storm beach and dune changes at several Massachusetts beaches.(Photo by Jim O’Connell, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)