The Boston Globe - 07.08.2019

B6 The Boston Globe WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019

Business

By Felice J. Freyer

GLOBE STAFF

W

OODS HOLE— It’s hot

where Carolyn Tepolt goes

to work on this summer

day, but she has no com-

plaints as she crouches over

her task, her dark ponytail

splayed on her back.

Tepolt’s work space — on this and some

other days — is the shoreline. In jeans, T-

shirt, and sandals, she’s toiling on a hidden

stretch of sand on Eel Pond, a saltwater in-

let where breezes crinkle the surface and

small pleasure boats bob.

The midday sun beats downas Tepolt

gently pokes a tangle of seaweed. “You see

movement and go for the movement,” she

explains.

Soon, something almost invisible stirs,

and Tepolt pounces. She stands up, cup-

ping in her hands two of the day’s quarry,

no bigger than spiders: babygreen crabs.

They are an invasive species; each will

grow to about three inches. A marine biolo-

gist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic In-

stitution, Tepolt wants to know what has

enabled themto survive on shores far from

their origins in Europe and North Africa.

The answer may hide in their genes.

Green crabs arrived in the Western

Hemisphere in the early 1800s, stowaways

on ships. They are arguably one of the

world’s most successful invasive species,

now scuttling along the east and west

coasts of North America, the east coast of

South America, and the shorelines of Ja-

pan, South Africa, Australia, and Tasma-

nia.

Green crabs have beenblamed for eat-

ing young soft-shelled clams in the Gulf of

Maine and damaging the eel grass where

lobsters and scallops breed in Canada.

Tepolt drops several of the rascals into a

test tube. She will take them back to her

lab, extract pieces of DNA from their cells,

and send the pieces to a lab for sequencing.

In their larval form, green crabs float in

the water, drifting on currents. They adapt

quickly to the new habitats where they

land. But humans have taken them farther

than nature ever intended, especially when

shipsstarted using water as ballast, suck-

ing up the invisible larvae on one shore and

depositing them on another.

Even on far-flung coastlines, they con-

WORKSPACE, PageB

Cracking the secret of

green crabs

A marine biologist studies thegenes of an

invasive,adaptable species, seekingto understand

how they surviveonshoresworldwide

PHOTOSBY JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF

Marine biologist CarolynTepolt kept a keen eye out for babygreencrabs alonga rocky beachin Woods Hole.

WORKSPACE

‘Yousee

movement

and gofor the

movement.’

CAROLYN TEPOLT,

marinebiologistat the

WoodsHole Oceanographic

Institution

By Priyanka Dayal McCluskey

GLOBE STAFF

Three big Boston teaching hospitals

are launching an initiative to help fam-

ilies facing eviction, collectively ac-

knowledging the strongconnection

between stablehousing and good

health.

Together, Boston MedicalCenter,

Boston Children’s Hospital, and

Brigham and Women’s Hospital plan

to spendabout$3 millionover three

yearsto fundhousingprograms

through grants to community organi-

zations. The first $1.5 million is slated

for families strugglingwithunstable

housing, includingthose behind on

rent payments and at risk of eviction.

The initiative reflects the growing

recognition in the health care industry

that such issues as housing, education,

and foodplay a critical role in a per-

son’s health — and in health care costs.

BMC,Children’s, and the Brigham

are all required to devote money to

community initiatives as a condition of

state approval for large construction

projects underway at each of their

campuses. All threehospitalsdecided

to focus on housing.

“Housing is a significantchallenge

for lots of vulnerable populations in

the city of Boston, and a lot of those

vulnerablepopulationsare our pa-

tients,” said Wanda McClain, vice pres-

ident of community health and health

equity at Brigham and Women’s.

“If you don’t have housing, it’s hard

to focus on other things,” she said.

The unusual three-way partnership

began with BMC. The safety net hospi-

tal — where an estimated 10 percent of

patientsare homeless or living in un-

HOUSING,PageB

Hospitals

team up

on aid for

housing

$3m plan’s aims: Cut

costs, fosterhealth

MORE

BOLDTYPES

New CEO Pratt Wiley has

long tiesto PartnershipB

By Allison Hagan

GLOBECORRESPONDENT

Keep calm, localluxury fashion

shoppers in needof an $8,000 sport

coat or $1,250 sandals — the Barneys

New York store in Boston will remain

opendespite the company’s plan to

close most of its shops nationwidein

conjunction witha Chapter 11 bank-

ruptcy filing.

The struggling department store

chain said Tuesday that 15 of its 22

stores will go dark. The store at Copley

Place in the Back Bay, however, will

stay in business, along with four other

flagshiplocationsin New York and

California,and two discountware-

houses.

The Barneys in Boston is one of the

company’s top-performing locations,a

Barneys representative said. The com-

pany also still plansto opena restau-

rant, Freds at Barneys New York, later

this year at Copley Place.

Barneys began in New York in 1923

as a discountclothing store, but it has

BARNEYS, PageB

Barneys says Boston store will stay open

LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF

In a bankruptcy filing, Barneys New York said it will shut15 of its 22

stores but the Copley Placeshop,a top-performer, will remainopen.

By JoshuaMiller
GLOBE STAFF
The Everett Arena? The Everett
boutique arts district? The Everett ho-
tel-a-palooza? It could happenright
across the street from Encore Boston
Harbor someday, company executives
musedTuesday on a call with inves-
tors.
Matt Maddox,the chief executive at
parent company Wynn Resorts Ltd.,
discusseda host of ideasfor how the
gaming giant might use nearly 12
acres it has acquired across the street
fromthe $2.6 billion resort hoteland
casino in a once-desolate stretch of Ev-
erett on Route 99.
“We are talking to variouspotential
partners because I think joint ventures
could really work on that 11 acres for
additional hotels... and other enter-
tainmentofferings,” he said on a quar-
terly earnings call.
“We’ve been approached by people

that would like to thinkabout putting

an arenatherefor various events,”

Maddox said.“We’ve beenapproached

by peoplethat like to do the outdoor

districts that have lots of various enter-

tainment aspects, but on a more bou-

tique level.”

Maddox said the company is evalu-

ating various proposals, isn’t in a rush,

but thinksa broaderentertainment

district will add to casinorevenues

over the long term.

His comments offer a new window

into the company’s would-begrand

plansfor the undevelopedland,which

it has quietly bought up over the years.

Maddox has previouslysaid the com-

pany’s idea “is to continue to redevelop

this area so that it’s knownastheen-

tertainment district in the Northeast.”

His remarks echoEverett Mayor

CarloDeMaria’s vision for the area,

which includes a pedestrian bridge

WYNN,PageB

Wynn Resorts hints at

plans for land near casino