Senator Bruce Tarr Visits MIT Sea Grant
On Monday, October 6, MIT Sea Grant hosted Massachusetts Senator Bruce Tarr for a tour of the program’s facilities and towing tank, and a discussion around current work including the architected reefs project.
Senator Tarr represents the First Essex and Middlesex District, which includes his hometown of Gloucester, a number of towns in North Shore and Merrimack Valley, and the coastal towns of Essex, Ipswich, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Newbury, Newburyport, Rockport, and Salisbury. A member of the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, Senator Tarr has been instrumental in initiatives for Salisbury, including projects addressing coastal erosion at Salisbury Beach and supporting the Salisbury Beach Preservation Trust Fund.
Thank you to Dr. Michael Triantafyllou, Dr. Juliet Simpson, Ansel Garcia-Langley, and the entire MIT Sea Grant team for an insightful visit and for leading projects like the Architected Reefs initiative, where science and technology come together to strengthen our ocean ecosystems.– Senator Bruce Tarr
Last year, MIT Sea Grant joined Senator Tarr, the Salisbury Town Selectboard, and other regulatory agencies and constituents for a forum on in Salisbury Beach to discuss the MIT Architected Reef project. A collaboration between MIT Sea Grant and the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, the initiative is developing sustainable structures that mimic the wave-attenuating effects of natural reefs to help protect the Massachusetts coast. Salisbury is particularly vulnerable to storms and coastal erosion, with Salisbury Beach positioned as a prime test site for the new technology.
