ACONS is an educational webinar series designed to celebrate Nantucket Sound’s exceptional environment, robust history, and cultural importance to the Cape and Islands. These webinars provide free, accessible, and fun learning opportunities for individuals and families in the safety of their own homes through Zoom. Since launching this series in 2020, we have presented over 30 webinars and have welcomed over 5,500 registrants.
Each webinar features a renowned expert in their field, presenting on one of the Sound’s unique values – and answering your questions in a live Q&A session to follow.
See what viewers are saying about our ACONS webinar series below.
Join us for a shoreline-inspired adventure that will change the way you see seashells! In this engaging ACONS webinar, conservation leader, shellfish biologist, and award-winning author Sandy Macfarlane explores the remarkable stories hidden within the shells we often admire along the beaches of Cape Cod and Nantucket Sound. From bold and colorful to subtle and weathered, every shell reveals something about marine life—and even about ourselves.
Guest speaker Karen Beattie (Nantucket Conservation Foundation) shares the remarkable transformation of the Windswept Bog on Nantucket. Once used for cranberry farming, this landscape is now being carefully restored into a thriving natural wetland—bringing back native plants, creating habitat for wildlife, and improving water quality. Karen will take us behind the scenes of this large-scale restoration effort, from the science and planning to the exciting early results. We will learn how projects like this not only benefit local ecosystems, but also strengthen coastal resilience and help protect the waters connected to Nantucket Harbor and Nantucket Sound.
Guest Speaker: Mark H. Robinson (The Compact) presents a captivating overview of conservation history on Cape Cod, and a look to its future as well.
Guest Speaker: Dr. Sarah Bois (Linda Loring Nature Foundation) shares the botanical wonders of the coastal grassland ecosystems of Nantucket & the Sound.
Guest Speaker: Marine biologist Carolyn Tepolt (at WHOI) guides us through one of the most disruptive invasive species in our waters—the green crab.
Guest speaker: Kristen Smith, Atlantic White Shark Conservancy presents research being conducted by AWSC & how that research is impacting conservation efforts.
If you would like to learn about sponsorship opportunities, have any questions, or would like to be a guest speaker, please contact us.
