Nahant Oceanological Society

The Nahant Oceanological Society is a location and pre-War association in the Commonwealth town of Nahant.

Background
Perched on the southeast banks of Nahant, this small society used to be a marine research laboratory and is now infamous for its mirelurk nests. Robots are still active and battling aquatic mutations coming up from the bay.

Before the war, the 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.

Layout
This location consists of two buildings, a main building for the society with reception and offices, and a separate laboratory to the south. The society building has two entrance doors, one to the front (west) and one to the rear.

Society building
The offices open up to a reception area; through the double doors are a kitchen and a research office, which contains a weapons workbench and a backdoor to the pier. There is also a staircase ascending to several more research stations. There is an Expert-locked door to the chief researcher's office, which contains a steamer trunk and Advanced-locked wall safe.

Inside the house there are two floors, with two Mr. Handies employed as oceanological instructors that may list off random facts about marine life. A door on the second floor of the house can be unlocked with Casey's key (which is found in a toolbox in the cabin of the wrecked boat just southeast of the house, along a small spit), behind which is a steamer trunk and an Advanced locked wall safe. To the rear exterior is a small shed on the decking with a Novice locked door, with some minor loot inside.

Research lab
The research lab is divided into two tiers: the catwalks and the ground floor. The catwalk tier has a chemistry station and a Master-locked steamer trunk. Stairs descend to the flooded ground where, most notably, there is a power armor station here, next to a research terminal.

The entrance door to the concrete constructed laboratory opens onto a catwalk level, which has a chemistry station, a Master locked steamer trunk, and a ramp leading to the lower level. Downstairs is a power armor station, an Expert locked safe that can be unlocked by the terminal next to it and a Novice locked first aid box. Several ammo boxes can also be found around the laboratory. A steel stairway on the west side wraps around an empty circular pool and leads up to the flat roof which offers a good sniping position of the numerous mirelurks and nests on the coastal fringe. barnacle traps line the external walls.

Notable loot

 * A Vault-Tec lunchbox - In the kitchen inside the house.
 * Wasteland Survival Guide issue #6 - In the room with a weapons workbench inside the house, on a desk near a typewriter and a TV.
 * Casey's key - Inside a toolbox, on a semi-sunken boat off the coast near Nahant Oceanological Society. The key opens the door to Casey's office in the building.
 * Bottle message - X marks the spot - On a tiny sand island with picket fencing, just a few paces west of the half-sunken boat.

Related quests

 * Quartermastery: Scribe Haylen has identified the location of a piece of technology she wishes to retrieve and catalog. She asks the Sole Survivor for help in bringing back the technology in one piece.
 * Cleansing the Commonwealth: Knight Rhys gives the Sole Survivor an assignment to clear the location of what he calls "abominations" to further the aims of the Brotherhood of Steel.

Companion comments

 * When at this location, companions make comments, which are activated at two locations: the second floor of the office building and in the research laboratory.

Appearances
The Nahant Oceanological Society appears only in Fallout 4.

Behind the scenes
The Nahant Oceanological Society is based on the real world Northeastern University Marine Science Center, located at East Point. During the Cold War, the installation at East Point housed missiles intended to stop a nuclear attack on Boston.

Bugs

 * The two doors leading into the house, as well as the shed door, may not be able to be interacted with, making the Wasteland Survival Guide inaccessible. Saving, quitting, and restarting the game may resolve this issue.
 * There may be a severe frame rate drop when looking in certain directions in the laboratory.
 * The Expert locked safe downstairs in the lab building can be re-locked via the adjacent computer, then unlocked an unlimited number of times for the experience points.
 * The Nuka-Cola machine on the ground floor of the house may glitch, causing the bottles to be lodged behind the machine. Due to the refrigerator on the right, it may make the bottles nearly impossible to access without dragging thinner items such as forks or mops to move them closer or else use explosives.