Nahant Oceanological Society (faction)

The Nahant Oceanological Society was a pre-War scientific and environmentalist group with the specific focus of studying the long-term effects of radioactive exposure on aquatic life, expose those responsible, and embolden the public into action.

Background
Headquartered at their building of the same name in Nahant, Massachusetts, their group's primary focus was sea life. It was they who first discovered that the local crustaceans were mutated from the radioactive pollutants in the North Atlantic. Once they gathered their findings, they vigorously tried to garner media and law enforcement attention to the issue. The problem was that no one took their complaints seriously. The Boston Port Authority ignored their phone calls, and Galaxy News Network spun the issue into a story about "how great shellfish season is going to be." Although the Society postulated that the increased size and toxicity of the mutant crustaceans would cause them to consume all their food sources and cause colony collapses, this was a shortsighted view, and the populations only grew after the Great War.

Meanwhile, they were also contacted to verify the findings of the Massachusetts Department of Natural Resources. The society discovered that Lake Quannapowitt was heavily polluted by radioactive particles and heavy metals. Although nearby industries (like the General Atomics factory, the Saugus Ironworks and the Corvega assembly plant) were suspected to be the source, it was actually Mass Fusion. On June 25, the MDNR urged that the mayor of Boston cancel the annual July 4th bass fishing tournament. The 2077 tournament was being sponsored by General Atomics International as a promotion for their new galleria. He ignored them, the significant health disaster and subsequent loss of life caused the lake to be closed to the public. Legal action followed, followed by conspiracy. The lake itself would remain a radioactive waste dump for the next two centuries.

During the last week of October 2077, the bulk of the staff went to attend the National Aquatic Protection Symposium in Monterey. However, several members stayed behind to work directly on their research, such as the case with Casey Reed, or indirectly to coordinate with volunteers to get more people to sign up for their upcoming blockade of Boston Harbor. This task was entrusted to Jim Prescott, who was also in charge of powering down the oceanological instructors before he left for the weekend. He forgot to do this and the robots continued to putter around the office, spouting ever-increasingly outdated facts for the next two centuries.

Appearances
The Nahant Oceanological Society is mentioned only in Fallout 4.