Coast Of Massachusetts Research Articles

A pilot study on surgical implantation and efficacy of acoustic transmitters in fifteen loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta), 2021–2022

BackgroundThe ability to detect the location of free-ranging sea turtles over time is desirable for ecological, conservation, and veterinary studies, but existing detection methods have limited sensitivity or longevity. Externally attached acoustic transmitters have variable, and sometimes short retention times for sea turtles. For several vertebrate taxa, surgically implanted acoustic transmitters have proven to be safe and effective for long-term detection; however, implanted transmitters have not yet been used for turtles.ResultsIn this pilot study, INNOVASEA acoustic transmitters were surgically implanted subcutaneously in the pre-femoral region of fifteen hospitalized loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) that had been rehabilitated after stranding due to cold-stunning. Model V16-4H transmitters (estimated battery longevity = 2435 days) were implanted in turtles measuring ≥ 50 cm straight carapace length (SCL), and model V13-1H transmitters (estimated battery longevity = 1113 days) were implanted in turtles measuring 30–49 cm SCL. Incision healing was monitored over several months prior to release. Twelve turtles’ incisions healed without complication, on average, 55 days after surgery (median 47, range 41–100). Three turtles experienced incision complications, two of which healed after a second surgery, while the third required transmitter removal to promote healing. One of the fourteen implanted transmitters was confirmed to be dysfunctional prior to release, although it had been functional prior to implantation. To date, 100% of turtles released with functional acoustic transmitters (n = 13) have been detected a total of 915 times by 40 individual acoustic receivers off the coasts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and in southern New England offshore waters. Turtles with transmitters generated 5–235 detections (mean 70, median 43) on 1–13 individual acoustic receivers (mean 5, median 5) for periods of 3–400 days post-release (mean 118, median 87). Total detections and detection durations for these individuals are expected to increase over time due to anticipated transmitter battery longevity.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that surgically implanted acoustic transmitters are effective for the detection of free ranging sea turtles, but refinement of surgical methodology is needed in light of the observed complications. Monitoring of healing is critical when evaluating novel surgical techniques in wildlife.

Effect of a low sound speed sediment layer on seismo-acoustic propagation in the New England Mud Patch

The New England Mud Patch (NEMP), located off the coast of Massachusetts, comprises at least four distinguishable sediment layers. The upper-most is a relatively thin, fluid-like layer (1) of mud. Below that lies more rigid mud (2) that has varying physical properties with depth. Below the mud is a sand layer (3) with a thickness of approximately 10 m. Finally, there lies a half-space layer (4) with a significantly higher density and faster compressional and shear speeds. In this paper, we explore the effect of the varying rigidity within the mud layer (2) and the sharp transition at the mud–sand interface, on forward-scattering. In the 2022 Seabed Characterization Experiment (SBCEX22), two different types of broadband sources (SUS and Rupture Disk sources) were deployed. The received signals show evidence of acoustic scattering and the generation of interface waves, along the interface between (1) and (2) and the mud-sand interface between (2) and (3). Results from normal mode modeling using Kraken and seismo-acoustic modeling using OASES suggest that the scattering can be attributed to inhomogeneities in the sediment layers. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research Code 322OA.]

Ecosystem services profiles for communities benefitting from estuarine habitats along the Massachusetts coast, USA

The Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Partnership is one of 28 programs in the United States Environmental Protection Agency's National Estuary Program (NEP) charged with developing and implementing comprehensive plans for protecting and restoring the biological integrity and beneficial uses of their estuarine systems. The Partnership has recently updated their comprehensive management plan to include restoration targets for coastal habitats, and as part of this effort, the program explored how to better demonstrate that recovery of ecological integrity of degraded ecosystems also provides ecosystem services that humans want and need. An essential step was to identify key stakeholders and understand the benefits important to them. The primary objective of the study presented here was to evaluate variability in beneficial uses of estuarine habitats across coastal communities in Massachusetts Bays. We applied a text mining approach to extract ecosystem services concepts from over 1400 community planning documents. We leveraged a Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS) classification framework and related scoping tool to identify and prioritize the suite of natural resource users and ecosystem services those users care about, based on the relative frequency of mentions in documents. Top beneficiaries included residents, experiencers and viewers, property owners, educators and students, and commercial or recreational fishers. Beneficiaries had a surprising degree of shared interests, with top ecosystem services of broad relevance including for naturalness, fish and shellfish, water movement and navigability, water quality and quantity, aesthetic viewscapes, availability of land for development, flood mitigation, and birds. Community-level priorities that emerged were primarily related to regional differences, the local job industry, and local demographics. Identifying priority ecosystem services from community planning documents provides a starting point for setting locally-relevant restoration goals, designing projects that reflect what stakeholders care about, and supporting post-restoration monitoring in terms of accruing relevant benefits to local communities.

Design optimization of offshore wind jacket piles by assessing support structure orientation relative to metocean conditions

Abstract. The orientation of a three-legged offshore wind jacket structure in 60 m water depth, supporting the IEA 15 MW reference turbine, has been assessed for optimizing the jacket pile design. A reference site off the coast of Massachusetts was considered, including site-specific metocean conditions and realistically plausible geotechnical conditions. Soil–structure interaction was modeled using three-dimensional finite-element (FE) ground–structure simulations to obtain equivalent mudline springs, which were subsequently used in nonlinear elastic simulations, considering aerodynamic and hydrodynamic loading of extreme sea states in the time domain. Jacket pile loads were found to be sensitive to the maximum 50-year wave direction, as opposed to the wind direction, indicating that the jacket orientation should be considered relative to the dominant wave direction. The results further demonstrated that the jacket orientation has a substantial impact on the overall jacket pile mass and maximum pile embedment depth and therefore represents an important opportunity for project cost and risk reductions. Finally, this research highlights the importance of detailed knowledge of the full global model behavior (both turbine and foundation) for capturing this optimization potential, particularly due to the influence of wind–wave misalignment on pile loads. Close collaboration between the turbine supplier and foundation designer, at the appropriate design stages, is essential.

Primary care provider perceptions of an asthma home visiting program

Introduction Pediatric asthma home visiting programs have improved clinical outcomes, but little is known about how providers perceive these programs. The purpose of this study was to understand how primary care providers and their colleagues in a medical home perceive an asthma home visiting program that is available at no cost to their patients. Methods After several years of running an asthma home visiting program using community health workers (CHW) in 10 pediatric primary care offices in the South Coast of Massachusetts, we surveyed the providers of patients who had enrolled in the program. An anonymous online survey was developed by the program leaders, the program analytics team, and the CHWs for quality improvement purposes. Survey domains included the perceived utility of various aspects of the program, impact on patients, and interaction with CHWs, as well as demographic information about the providers. Results Of the 24 providers asked to complete the survey from eight primary care practices, 21 completed the survey (88%). Respondents perceived that the most beneficial aspects were environmental assessment (95%), asthma education (91%), and addressing environmental issues (86%). In addition to numerous positive free-text responses, suggestions for improvement were in the areas of referral completion, post-visit communication, and patient identification in the medical record. All respondents would continue to refer to the program. Conclusions Primary care providers and medical home staff perceived an asthma home visiting program to have high utility, particularly the environmental assessment, asthma education, and mitigation of environmental issues. Additional opportunities for improvement were identified.

An end-to-end deep learning approach for joint detection, source localization and environmental characterization using a single hydrophone in shallow water

Environmental characterization of underwater environments is crucial for modeling acoustic propagation in the ocean, which in turn enables underwater applications such as performing environmental impact studies on the effect of ocean noise on marine life, evaluating sonar performance and more. In this work, the aim is to automate and improve run-time performance of environmental characterization, compared to classical methods which employ high-cost computational schemes and sometimes require manual inputs from a skilled operator. To do so, we use 1D Convolutional Neural Networks (1D-CNN), a type of Deep Learning (DL) model, to acoustically characterize the underwater environment using unprocessed pressure time-series recorded on a single hydrophone. We notably propose an end-to-end approach to detect, classify and localize acoustic sources along with estimating environmental parameters using a single DL model. The experimental data used for testing the resulting 1D-CNN models are signals that were generated by navy explosives (SUS charges) deployed during the Seabed Characterization Experiment performed in the New England Mud-patch off the coast of Massachusetts.

Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life

Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life

Conceptual Sacrificial Anode Cathodic Protection Design for offshore wind monopiles

The design and implementation of a cathodic protection system for offshore steel monopiles used to support wind turbines are required to protect them from corrosion. This paper uses the recommended practice DNVGL-RP-B401-Cathodic Protection Design to demonstrate the step-by-step sacrificial anode cathodic protection system design of an offshore monopile located off the coast of Massachusetts. It compares the requirements for coated and uncoated structures and discusses the other factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Impacts of sea level rise on future storm-induced coastal inundations over massachusetts coast

Hurricanes (tropical cyclones) and nor'easters (extratropical cyclones) are two major storm systems for flood risk over the Massachusetts coast. Severe coastal inundation usually happens when wind-induced waves and storm surges coincide with high tides. A Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System (NECOFS) was established and placed into the 24/7 forecast operations starting in 2007. Using a well-validated “end to end” FVCOM inundation model of NECOFS, we examined the impact of climate change-induced sea-level rise (SLR) on the future extratropical storms-induced coastal inundation over the Massachusetts coast. The assessment was done by making the model experiments to project the storm-induced inundation over the coastal areas of Scituate and Boston Harbors with different SLR scenarios under a hundred-year storm condition. The results suggest that with sustained SLR, the northeastern US coast will be vulnerable more severely to wave runup-induced splashing/overtopping than wind-induced storm surges. This finding is consistent with the change in the intensity of storm-generated surface waves in the last decade. The model also suggests that the responses of surge and surface waves to SLR are fully nonlinear. The assessment of the impacts of SLR on the future storm-induced coastal inundation should be investigated with a model including wave-current interactions.

Methylmercury Levels in Commercially Harvested Spiny Dogfish Captured off the Coast of Massachusetts

Abstract Spiny Dogfish Squalus acanthias are small sharks that are harvested for seafood, primarily off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. For the purposes of establishing seafood consumption advisories with regard to methylmercury (MeHg) content, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies Spiny Dogfish as “sharks,” an overly broad taxonomic grouping with a mean MeHg content of 0.98 μg/g wet weight. Because the FDA mean includes fishes of different species that have been collected internationally over the last four decades, there is reason to believe that the FDA mean value is not reflective of the fish harvested in the Spiny Dogfish fishery. To evaluate how closely Spiny Dogfish match the values in the FDA’s generic shark category, we collected muscle samples from 102 commercially harvested Spiny Dogfish caught off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, during the 2018 fishing season. Among the fish we sampled, 100% had MeHg concentrations lower than the FDA mean for sharks and 77.5% had MeHg concentrations that the FDA considers safe for consumption at a frequency of once per week. The mean MeHg concentration in our samples was 0.378 μg/g wet weight, less than half of the value for the generic shark category. Moreover, through a comparison with data from the 1970s, we documented a 30% decline in MeHg concentrations for select size categories of Spiny Dogfish captured off the coast of New England. Exposure simulations indicated that to minimize risk, Spiny Dogfish should be consumed no more than twice per month by most people.

Offshore Wind Turbines Will Encounter Very Low Atmospheric Turbulence

Turbulence governs the development and erosion of wind farm wakes, which can deplete the offshore wind resource. Therefore, an accurate understanding of atmospheric turbulence is required to support the rapid growth of offshore wind energy. Using 13 months of lidar observations off the coast of Massachusetts, we find that offshore wind plants at the site will experience very low turbulence, quantified as lidar turbulence intensity, especially in summer, when the wind flows from the open ocean. Moreover, the lowest turbulence regimes are often associated with large wind veer conditions, which can impact the effectiveness of wake steering solutions.

Offshore Wind: The New Frontier in Powering Platforms?

The world of energy is changing. With society’s expectations of a strong political and industrial response to the threat of climate change, and renewable technologies becoming more attractive from a financial standpoint, the oil and gas industry finds itself examining where, and how, it will fit into the future mix. That examination, and the discussion around the energy mix, often pits oil and gas as a competitor with renewables, or an outright opponent, but the two sides may have a lot to offer each other. Offshore wind power is one renewable resource that is on the verge of being a massive industry. In its 2019 outlook on offshore wind, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that global offshore wind capacity is set to increase by 15-fold over the next 2 decades, turning it into a $1.0-trillion business. While it only accounts for 0.3% of global power generation today, a number of analysts have pointed out its potential. Several European countries (the UK, Denmark, and Germany) have set policy targets for offshore wind projects, and projects are under development in southeast Asian countries such as Korea and Vietnam. Some operators have begun moving into the wind space. Shell won a pair of massive seabed leases last year to develop offshore wind projects off the coasts of Massachusetts and New Jersey in the US, and it is in a 50–50 venture with European utility company Nuon to build a 36-turbine wind farm in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. In July, Equinor won a bid to develop the Empire Wind farm over 80,000 acres offshore New York. While much of the focus for offshore wind is on generating electricity for municipalities, it could also serve as a complement to conventional oil and gas projects, primarily through platform electrification. According to Wood MacKenzie, approximately 5% of offshore wellhead production globally—more than 1.7 million BOE/D—is used as fuel to power platforms, reducing sales volumes and producing emissions of around 200 million tonnes of CO2 each year, the equivalent of the total CO2 emissions of Vietnam. In a world where carbon pricing may become more commonplace, renewables offer potential long-term cost savings. David Linden, director of power and renewables consulting at Wood Mackenzie, said that offshore wind platforms offer numerous possibilities. “It is a different range of opportunities, whether it’s onshore or offshore, and other areas being looked at as well, the concepts being developed. If the industry thinks about all those different options—and there should certainly be many different ways you can make this happen—it’s just a question of what is sensible to your platform,” Linden said. The Economics of Wind Power Any push into the renewable space will bring forth some discussion of economic feasibility, and right now the numbers look good for wind power. According to a report from BloombergNEF released in October, global benchmark prices for offshore wind have dropped 32% in the past year and 12% in the past 6 months. Global benchmark prices hit $78/MWh for the second half of 2019, driven primarily by lower equipment costs, but US developers are bidding closer to, or even surpassing, that total.

Can invasive species replace native species as a resource for birds under climate change? A case study on bird-fruit interactions

Wild fruits are an important food source for many north temperate-breeding landbirds during autumn migration and, in turn, birds provide the service of seed dispersal. Despite the importance of these autumn interactions, their potential to shift with climate change and species invasions remains poorly understood. As invasive fleshy-fruited shrubs spread across the Northeast USA and many landbird species pass through stopover sites later with warming temperatures, the potential for changes in bird-fruit interactions depends on the phenology and availability of native and invasive wild fruits, and bird preferences across the autumn season. We observed the fruiting phenology of 25 native and invasive fleshy-fruited wild plant species at Manomet, a migratory stopover site on the coast of Massachusetts, USA, during the autumn migration season (August to November) in 2014 and 2015. We also monitored fruit availability across Manomet in 2015. To determine whether fruit consumption reflected phenology and availability, we identified seeds from 469 fecal samples collected from songbirds captured during the 2014 and 2015 autumn banding seasons. We found that while invasive shrubs fruited later, on average, than native plants, and comprised a large proportion of the total available fruits in late-autumn, birds primarily consumed the fruits of native species throughout the autumn season. Our results demonstrate that native fruits are an important food resource for birds during the autumn migration season and are unlikely to be replaced by abundant fruits of late-season invasive species under climate change.

ALTERED POLLINATION ECOLOGY OF A NATIVE PLANT SPECIES IN THE PRESENCE OF AN ATTRACTIVE NON-NATIVE PLANT SPECIES

Numerous plant species have been introduced to non-native environments across the globe. Daucus carota was introduced to North America from Europe. Its extensive presence on Nantucket, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, has been documented at least since the nineteenth century. To address whether the presence of D. carota affects the pollination of native species on Nantucket, we sought to answer three questions: 1) Does the presence of D. carota increase pollinator visits and diversity on Sericocarpus asteroides? 2) Does the removal of D. carota restore pollinator visits and diversities to those found in plots with only S. asteroides? and 3) Is there a relationship between the amount of heterospecific pollen and distance to the nearest D. carota population? To answer these questions, we determined that both species attract the same pollinators by first observing pollinator visits on D. carota, then performing the same observational study on S. asteroides. We recorded pollinator visitors in S. asteroides populations that were in allopatry and sympatry with D. carota. We followed this study with a manipulative experiment within sympatric plots in which we removed D. carota inflorescences and again recorded pollinator visits. In addition, we assayed S. asteroides inflorescences from a range of distances from D. carota for the presence of heterospecific pollen. Both species were generalist pollinated, and S. asteroides received more visits in the presence of D. carota. After the removal of D. carota inflorescences, the number and diversity of visitors declined. Finally, whereas populations of S. asteroides close to D. carota receive more overall pollen, there was no increase in heterospecific pollen.

Persistent near real‐time passive acoustic monitoring for baleen whales from a moored buoy: System description and evaluation

Abstract Managing interactions between human activities and marine mammals often relies on an understanding of the real‐time distribution or occurrence of animals. Visual surveys typically cannot provide persistent monitoring because of expense and weather limitations, and while passive acoustic recorders can monitor continuously, the data they collect are often not accessible until the recorder is recovered. We have developed a moored passive acoustic monitoring system that provides near real‐time occurrence estimates for humpback, sei, fin and North Atlantic right whales from a single site for a year, and makes those occurrence estimates available via a publicly accessible website, email and text messages, a smartphone/tablet app and the U.S. Coast Guard's maritime domain awareness software. We evaluated this system using a buoy deployed off the coast of Massachusetts during 2015–2016 and redeployed again during 2016–2017. Near real‐time estimates of whale occurrence were compared to simultaneously collected archived audio as well as whale sightings collected near the buoy by aerial surveys. False detection rates for right, humpback and sei whales were 0% and nearly 0% for fin whales, whereas missed detection rates at daily time scales were modest (12%–42%). Missed detections were significantly associated with low calling rates for all species. We observed strong associations between right whale visual sightings and near real‐time acoustic detections over a monitoring range 30–40 km and temporal scales of 24–48 hr, suggesting that silent animals were not especially problematic for estimating occurrence of right whales in the study area. There was no association between acoustic detections and visual sightings of humpback whales. The moored buoy has been used to reduce the risk of ship strikes for right whales in a U.S. Coast Guard gunnery range, and can be applied to other mitigation applications.

U.S. East Coast Lidar Measurements Show Offshore Wind Turbines Will Encounter Very Low Atmospheric Turbulence

AbstractThe rapid growth of offshore wind energy requires accurate modeling of the wind resource, which can be depleted by wind farm wakes. Turbulence dissipation rate (ϵ) governs the accuracy of model predictions of hub‐height wind speed and the development and erosion of wakes. Here we assess the variability of turbulence kinetic energy and ϵ using 13 months of observations from a profiling lidar deployed on a platform off the Massachusetts coast. Offshore, ϵ is 2 orders of magnitude smaller than onshore, with a subtle diurnal cycle. Wind direction influences the annual cycle of turbulence, with larger values in winter when the wind flows from the land, and smaller values in summer, when the wind flows from open ocean. Because of the weak turbulence, wind plant wakes will be stronger and persist farther downwind in summer.

Distribution of the highly toxic clinging jellyfish Gonionemus sp. around the island of Martha\u2019s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA

In recent years, the cryptogenic and often highly toxic hydrozoan Gonionemus sp. has appeared in new locations around the globe and has become increasingly abundant in the Northwest Atlantic where it is now associated with severe stings. Several such stings have been documented from the island of Martha’s Vineyard, located approximately 8 km south of the Cape Cod, Massachusetts coast. It appears that Gonionemus sp. may be expanding its range in this region. Here we surveyed for medusae in the major coastal ponds along the perimeter of Martha’s Vineyard, refined our knowledge of Gonionemus sp. habitat by recording salinity, water depth, and bottom type from surveyed areas, and obtained a basic population life history assessment by measuring the sizes and sex ratios of medusae collected in the surveys. We found Gonionemus sp. present in five ponds: Farm Pond, Sengekontacket Pond, Lake Tashmoo, Stonewall Pond, and Edgartown Great Pond. Medusae were associated with eelgrass meadows in all cases. Salinities for medusa populations ranged from 18 ppt in Edgartown Great Pond to 29 ppt in the other ponds. The Farm Pond and Stonewall Pond medusae were significantly smaller than those from other ponds and were comprised of primarily immature individuals despite sampling relatively later in the season, suggesting factors other than temperature may be affecting medusa growth. For mature medusae, sex ratios were highly biased, suggesting a strong clonal component to population growth. Edgartown Great Pond contained only males and thus may represent an entirely clonal population. These medusae are the first record of Gonionemus sp. in Edgartown Great Pond, despite a long history of study. Medusae were most abundant in the portion of the pond near the town landing, which suggests that the medusae could have originated by clonal polyps, frustules, or cysts associated with a boat hull. Given the presence of male and female medusae in other parts of Martha’s Vineyard, it seems likely that additional genetic individuals will arrive in the near future, potentially establishing a sexually reproductive population.

Bat Use of an Island off the Coast of Massachusetts

Nantucket, Massachusetts, could provide unique habitat for bats, but few data are available regarding bat populations on the island. We conducted passive acoustic surveys in 2015 and 2016 to inventory bat species and identify seasonal activity patterns. We detected at least 6 species of bats on Nantucket. Lasiurus cinereus (Hoary Bat) and Lasionycteris noctivagans (Silver-haired Bat) were detected as probable migrants, and Lasiurus borealis (Eastern Red Bat), Eptesicus fuscus (Big Brown Bat), and Myotis species were also present in summer. We detected Perimyotis subflavus (Tricolored Bat) in fall and early winter, suggesting that the species may hibernate on the island. In 2016, we mist-netted and radio-tagged Myotis septentrionalis (Northern Long-eared Bat), and documented individuals reproducing and hibernating on Nantucket. Given the persistence of this rare species on the island, we suggest that land-conservation organizations should consider maintenance of mature forest stands in their suite of planned management activities.

Performance of a low-cost, solar-powered pop-up satellite archival tag for assessing post-release mortality of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) caught in the US east coast light-tackle recreational fishery

BackgroundPop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) are a valuable tool for estimating mortality of pelagic fishes released from commercial and recreational fishing gears. However, the high cost of PSATs limits sample sizes, resulting in low-precision post-release mortality estimates with little management applicability. We evaluate the performance of a lower-cost PSAT designed to enable large-scale post-release mortality studies. The tag uses solar rather than battery power, does not include a depth sensor, and transmits daily summaries of light and temperature data rather than high-resolution habitat profiles, contributing to a substantially lower per-unit price. We assessed the tag’s ability to detect mortality while also estimating the post-release mortality of juvenile (119–< 185 cm) Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) caught using light-tackle angling methods along the US east coast.ResultsUsing high-resolution data from previously deployed PSATs and environmental information from the general tagging location, we established parameters to infer mortality for Atlantic bluefin tuna using only daily summary data. We then deployed 22 PSATs, programmed to pop off after 31 days (thus providing 30 full daily summaries), on Atlantic bluefin tuna caught using light tackle off the coasts of Massachusetts and North Carolina, USA, in 2015 and 2016. Data were recovered for 15 tags with deployments ranging from 7 days (premature shedding) to 95 days (failed pop-off) and indicated that tagged fish spent sufficient time near the surface to keep the solar-powered tags fully charged. Fourteen fish demonstrated strong temporal changes in temperature indicating vertical movement in the water column, consistent with survival. One fish was predated upon after 17 days, likely by a shortfin mako, and was considered a natural mortality, resulting in a post-release mortality estimate of 0%.ConclusionsWhile low reporting rates complicated inferences about post-release mortality, the concept of using species-specific mortality parameters coupled with a reduced dataset shows promise as a cost-effective tool for detecting post-release mortality using PSATs. In addition, findings suggest that catch-and-release angling is a viable conservation strategy for juvenile Atlantic bluefin tuna caught in the US east coast light-tackle fishery.

First visual record of rare purple-colored dogwhelks (Nucella lapillus) on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada

The dogwhelk Nucella lapillus is a rocky intertidal gastropod of the North Atlantic coast. Individual shell color varies. Common colors range between white and brown, with darker dogwhelks being more affected by heat stress than lighter-colored conspecifics. Other reported shell colors are purple, black, mauve, pink, yellow, and orange from UK coasts, red and gray from the Bay of Fundy coast of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (Canada), and purple, black, gray, yellow, and orange from the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts (USA), with purple being considered as a rare color. On the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, dogwhelks are active from April until November, but information on dogwhelk shell color is missing for this coast. On 16 June 2016, we found two purple-colored dogwhelks in the mid-to-high intertidal zone of a moderately wave-exposed rocky shore near Duncans Cove, on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia while collecting dogwhelks (n= 1000) during low tide for manipulative field experiments. All other dogwhelks collected on that day were of common white and brown colors. During earlier dogwhelk collections in Atlantic Nova Scotia (between 2011-2013) and field surveys in Duncans Cove (between 2014-2016), we did not find any purple-colored dogwhelks, indicating the rareness of this color in that region. Apparently, our observations provide the first visual record of rare purple-colored dogwhelks on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.