REPTILES AND SPIDERS AND FISHES, OH MY!
No longer is the Maria Mitchell Association just a repository and display for preserved specimens of island wildlife.

In Maria Mitchell's Natural History Museum at the Hinchman House at 7 Milk St. are living examples of Nantucket's diverse populations. Here you will find three of the six nonpoisonous snakes found on island: milk, Eastern ribbon and garter; a praying mantis; purse web spiders; six-spotted fishing spiders; buck moth caterpillars; painted turtles; yellow perch. All are also found in Nantucket's ecosystems and can, if one knows how to look for them, be found by you, the intrepid island explorer.

But before venturing out in the bush or swamp, get over to Maria Mitchell, check out its live collection and learn from its staff how to identify these creatures. Admission is free for members, $5 for adults and $4 for children. They are open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday June 12 to Sept. 8. Call 228-0898 for details.

ANONYMOUS SEAHORSES Trigger? Green Beauty? Sea Biscuit? There are five seahorses down at the Maria Mitchell Association Aquarium without names, not that you should use the ones above, but they might get you started.

A recently found Milk Snake at Maria Mitchell's Natural History Museum.

The Maria Mitchell Aquarium has corralled these wonders of the sea that actually live in Nantucket waters in their tanks at 28 Washington St. The MMA staff is hoping its visitors can come up with names for all of them or as a group. This annual sea creaturenaming contest runs now through Sept. 1 If you want to enter the contest, trot down to the aquarium and fill out an entry form. The aquarium is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The MMA will announce the winners, and yes, there will be several, on Sept. 3 at the aquarium.

STOMACH FLU ON THE HALF SHELL Do you enjoy that queasy stomach ache you get after eating quahogs, oysters and mussels harvested fresh from Nantucket's harbors during the summer months?

Neither do we.

That's why it's a good reason to obey the Marine & Coastal Resources Department's harbor closures around the island at this time of year. Heed the warnings and the signs placed along the shore, buy your shellfish at one of the island's quality fishmongers, and avoid the always unpleasant effects of Quentin's Revenge by not taking shellfish from the areas listed below:

These two renderings show 'Sconset's new water storage tank, at top, planned for behind the 'Sconset baseball field, and Nantucket Town's second water tank, which will sprout off Polpis Road, opposite Shimmo Pond Road. Both are known as elevated storage tanks because their entire capacity, located in wide tank at the top of each, can be used for drinking, bathing and fire prevention because. They are at or above an elevation required for adequate pressure to reach all customers in their respective districts. They are also rated to provide a certain sustained water pressure at key intersections around their districts for firefighting purposes.

July 1 through Dec. 31, do not take shellfish in Madaket Harbor east of a line running from the western end of Esther Island to Eel Point, and in Hither Creek. Also avoid the mollusks in the western cove of Polpis Harbor and those west of a southwest line from Brant Point down to the Great Harbor Yacht Club.

IMAGES COURTESY OF WANNACOMET WATER CO.

You can, however, harvest bay scallops from all of these areas and the rest of the harbors from Oct. 1 through March 31, because only the muscle of the scallop is eaten, whereas the entire steamer, quahog, oyster or mussel is eaten. No matter which shellfish you pursue, don't do so without a shellfish permit from the Marine Department at 34 Washington St. Call 228-7261 for details.

GIVE US YOUR GOOK Is your garage packed with dangerous chemicals, used motor oils and buckets of spent batteries? The June hazardous waste collection day, hosted by the Department of Public Works, is this Saturday at the landfill.

Bring all of your nasty liquids and solids out to the garage at 188 Madaket Road from 8 a.m. to noon. To get there, take the third entrance to the landfill property coming from the town and the first coming from Madaket. For a complete listing of what you can and can't unload, check out www.nantucket-ma.gov/departments/ dpw.html, scroll down and click on the link for household hazardous

waste or call 228-7244. I