The Boston Globe - 07.08.2019

B2 Metro The Boston Globe WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019

ByTravis Andersen

GLOBE STAFF

C

ity officials work mightily to boost tourism in the summer, but

they’d have a whale of a time getting a recent arrival into a suite

at the Four Seasons.

That’s right: There’s a humpback whalein Boston Harbor,

and it’s enjoying the local cuisine.

“A young humpback whale has been feeding at the mouth of Boston

Harbor over the last threedays,” the New England Aquariumsaid in a

statementMonday.

The calf was born last year to a whale named Whirlygig, but has likely

been on its own since earlythis year, the aquarium said. “The good news is

that this juvenile humpback, still of unknowngender, is feeding successful-

ly at the mouthof Boston Harbor on schools of menhaden, also known lo-

cally as pogies,” the aquarium said. “The news of concern is that it is doing

so in the middle of the shipping channels into Boston’s busy port.”

The whale has beenspotted several times in recent days by the aquari-

um’s whale watch vessels between two lighthouses in the harbor, Boston

Light and Graves Light.

“This young, acrobatic whale can be seen feeding alongside one of the

dredge barges that is deepening the shipping channel,” the aquarium said.

Whales used to be a rare sight in Boston Harbor, but since 2013have

“becomea near annual occurrence,” the aquarium said. Last summer, a

young humpback spent a day swimming deep in the harbor, just off South

Boston. The young whales are chasing food, the aquarium said.

“[W]hale behavior is usually mostly influenced by food availability,” the

statementsaid. “Over the last two summers, large schools of menhaden

(pogies) have beenin residence fromthe South Shore to N.H. Many videos

have been posted of humpbacks feeding close to shore.”

That is linked to the cleanup of Boston Harbor over the decades, which

has improved water quality so dramatically that “large schools of migratory

fish spend much of the mid- to late-summerhere,” the aquarium said.

It’s not clearhow long the humpback will stay, but the aquarium asked

boaters to be careful. “If any whale is sighted, boaters should cut engines

and enjoy the magnificentsight until the whale clears the area,” the aquari-

um said. “Boaters should not pursue whales.”

For thosewho would like a longer look at the majestic creatures, the

country’s only whalefeeding sanctuary, the Stellwagen BankNational Ma-

rine Sanctuary, is at the tip of Cape Cod.

“In a three hour trip from downtown Boston, anyonecan see the largest

animalsto ever live on Earth,” the acquarium said. “Few cities in the world

have that luxury and wonder at their doorstep.”

Steve Annearof the Globe Staff contributedto this report. Travis Andersen

canbe reached at [email protected]. Followhimon Twitter

@TAGlobe.

Young whale dines in the harbor

NEWENGLAND AQUARIUM

A younghumpbackwhalehasbeenfeedingoff schoolsof menhadenat themouthof BostonHarbor. Boatersareadvisedto bemindful.

AROUNDTHEREGION

WELLFLEET

Another shark sighting

closes Cape Cod beach

Newcomb Hollow Beach was closed to swim-

ming for an hour Tuesday because of a shark

sighting, officials said. A shark was detected by a

buoy at 11:13 a.m., according to the Atlantic

White Shark Conservancy Sharktivity app.

Swimmers were allowed in the water again

around 12:15p.m., Wellfleet Beach Administra-

tor Suzanne Thomassaid. This is the 10th shark

sighting in the past two days, according to the

Sharktivity app. Two beaches in Truro closed

Monday because of a shark sighting.

BOSTON

Clarendon Street

turnpike rampclosing

The on-ramp from Clarendon Street onto the

Massachusetts Turnpike is closing Sept. 3 due to

safety concerns, the Massachusetts Department

of Transportation said. MassDOT is closing the

westbound ramp after more than a year of dis-

cussions with local leaders “due to concernsover

safety and effective travel,” the department said

in a statement. That on-ramp has about four

times as many crashes as the ramps at Arlington

and Dartmouth streets. The closure was ap-

proved by the Federal Highway Administration,

MassDOT said. The ramp is used by 75 percent

fewer vehicles per hour than the Arlington and

Dartmouth streets ramps. MassDOTis holding a

public meeting about the closure at the Central

Library in Copley Square at 6 p.m. Aug. 27.

TAUNTON

Baker appoints mayor

to county probate post

Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye plans to step down

after Governor Charlie Baker nominated him to

the post of Bristol County Register of Probate.

Hoye is currently in his fourth term as mayor

and had indicated as late as last week that he

would seek re-election in November. Immediate-

ly after Baker’s announcement on Monday, Re-

publican state Representative Shaunna O'Con-

nell said she would run to succeed Hoye. f con-

firmed by the Governor’s Council, Hoye would

succeed Gina DeRossi, who stepped down last

year to becomeadministrator for the state ap-

peals court. (AP)

ARLINGTON/NEEDHAM

Rewards offered in case

of fires at Jewish centers

The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward for infor-

mation leading to the arrest to whoever set fire

to Jewish centers in Arlington and Needham in

May, in crimes that shocked both towns and

prompted a massive solidarity rally in response.

The Anti-Defamation League is offering an addi-

tional $15,000 reward, a spokeswoman said. The

FBI announced the reward Tuesday and released

surveillance footage of a hooded man, who the

bureau said “may have information relevant to

the investigation into several arsons at Chabad

Centers in Massachusetts.” Someone set fire to

the shingles of a rabbi’s homein Arlington on

May 11 and again on May 16. Also on May 16,

about an hour after the Arlington fire, authori-

ties responded to an exterior fire at the Chabad

Lubavitch Jewish Center in Needham. No one

was hurt in any of the fires. Anyone with infor-

mation relevant to the ongoing probe should call

the FBI Boston Division at 857-386-2000.

BOSTON

Lawmakersfrustrated

with Registry response

State legislators on Tuesday sent a letter to Trans-

portation Secretary Stephanie Pollock detailing

their frustration with the response to their re-

quest for documents that detail oversight of the

Registry of Motor Vehicles. “We are writing to ex-

press the Committee’s serious, overall frustration

and deep concern with the... level of coopera-

tion in the document production process thus

far,” wrote state Representative William M.

Straus and state Senator Joseph A. Boncore, co-

chairmen for the Joint Committee on Transpor-

tation. The committee had requested documents

last month, after the Registry came under fire

following the deaths of seven people in a N.H.

crash in June, allegedly caused by a truck driver

from West Springfield who should have lost his

Massachusetts commercial driver’s license.

POLICEBLOTTER

RFOUR SHOTFour people were shot in the span

of nine hours fromMonday night into Tuesday

morning, according to Boston police. At 8:

p.m. Monday, a man was shot at Humboldt Av-

enue and Waumbeck Street in Roxbury, accord-

ing to Officer Kim Tavares, a department

spokeswoman.There was ballistic damage to a

vehicle and the man was taken to an area hospi-

tal with unknown injuries. Another shooting

was reported at 1:29 a.m. Tuesday on Wildwood

Street in Mattapan,and the malevictim was

taken to an area hospital with life-threatening

injuries. Three hours later, at 4:28 a.m., police

responded to a report of a shooting on Blue Hill

Avenue. Tavares said two people were shot at

the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue and Devon

Street in Dorchester. There had been no arrests

in any of the shootings as of early Tuesday eve-

ning, accordingto police.

ROFFICER ATTACKEDA man who exhibited bi-

zarre behavior at the Haymarket MBTA Station

and who said he smoked “a lot of K2” was ar-

rested late Monday nightafter he allegedly el-

bowed a Transit Police officer in the face, ac-

cording to police. Julien Exantus, 22, of Revere,

was charged with assault and battery on a police

officer, resisting arrest, and assault with a dan-

gerous weapon, according to Transit Police Su-

perintendent RichardSullivan. The incident be-

gan around 11:30 p.m., when Transit Police offi-

cers were called to handle a report of a naked

man running around in the busway at Haymar-

ket Station. Witnesses directed officers to Exan-

tus, who was clothed and “behaving strangely,”

according to a blog post on tpdnews411.com.

Police said Exantus made numerousodd state-

ments and yelled “giveyour life to me” to the of-

ficers. An officer tried to subdue Exantus as he

allegedly began to swinga skateboard toward a

bystander and during the struggle, Exantus el-

bowed the officer above his left eye, police said.

The officer was taken to the hospital and the

wound required stitches, police said.

RFATAL CRASHLee Johnson, 55, of Oakdale,

Conn., was killed in a two-car crash Tuesday

around 7:15 a.m. in Marlborough after his SUV

was hit from behind on Interstate 290, police

said. A 24-year-old Lowell man driving a 2016

Subaru Impreza rear-ended a 2011 Ford Escape

on I-290 eastbound near Exit 26, State Police

said in a statement. This caused Johnson’s Ford

Escape to enter the median and roll over. John-

son and his two passengers, a 14-year-old boy

and a 22-year-old woman, were taken to UMass

Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. Johnson

was pronounced dead at the hospital, and the

passengers sustained minor injuries, police

said. The driver of the Subaru also sustained

minor injuries and was taken to Marlborough

Hospital, police said. The crash is under investi-

gation.

GETSMART

ByMartin Finucane
GLOBE STAFF
An MIT emeritus professor has hit the
jackpot, earning a $1 million prize for his
groundbreaking work in physics.
Daniel Z. Freedman,now a visiting profes-
sor at Stanford University, is splitting a $
million Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental
Physics with two other particle physics ex-
perts for the “invention of supergravity, in
which quantum variables are part of the de-
scription of the geometry of spacetime,” the
prize selection committee said.
The Breakthrough Prizes are meant to
honor fundamental discoveries in the life sci-
ences, physics, and mathematics that are
changing the world. Its founders include
Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook,
and Sergey Brin,co-founder of Google.
“The discovery of supergravity was the be-
ginning of including quantum variables in de-
scribing the dynamics of spacetime. It is quite
striking that Einstein’s equations admit the
generalization that we know as supergravity,”
Edward Witten, chairman of the selection
committee and a prominent physicist himself,
said in a statement.
“When we think of the great works of the
human imagination, we often meanart, mu-
sic and literature,” Yuri Milner, a billionaire
who is another one of the founders of the
Breakthrough Prize, said in the statement.
“But some of the most profoundand beautiful
creations are those of scientists. Supergravity
has inspired physicists for decades and may
contain deeptruths about the nature of reali-
ty.”
Freedman,who was at Stony Brook Uni-
versity whenhe helped make the discovery,
will share the prize with Sergio Ferrara of
CERN and Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, also of
Stony Brook.
The statement said that the trio were the
“architects of supergravity, a highly influential
1976 theory that successfully integrated the
force of gravity into a particular kind of quan-
tum field theory (a theory that describes the
fundamental particles and forces of nature in
terms of fields embodying the laws of quan-
tum mechanics).”
Freedmanjoined the MIT faculty in 1980
and retired in 2016,the university said in a
statement.
“I treasure my 36 years at MIT,” he said in
the statement, noting that he worked with
“outstanding” graduate students with “great
resourcefulness as problem solvers.”

Martin Finucane can be reachedat
[email protected].

MIT physicist

shares prize for

work on

supergravity

MIRIAMFREEDMAN

Aug. 7, 1988: Governor Michael Dukakis
should step downwhile he runs for the White
House, a majority of state legislators said in a
survey conducted by the Globe. A slight ma-
jority of Democrats and Republicans believe
the governor cannot lead the state and seek
the presidency at the same time, particularly
as Massachusetts faces a state budget crisis.

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