Striper Wars author Dick Russell talks about efforts to save a troubled fishery, on Wednesday, August 27, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.

When populations of striped bass began plummeting in the early 1980s, author and fisherman Dick Russell was there to lead an Atlantic coast conservation campaign that resulted in one of the most remarkable wildlife comebacks in the history of fisheries.

Author Ernie Weiss talks about his book Out of Vienna: Eight Years of Flight from the Nazis on Thursday, August 28, from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library. Admission is free.

Ernie Weiss is the son of a Dachau concentration camp survivor. He was born in Vienna in 1931. When Hitler invaded Austria in 1938 Ernie and his family fled. After eight years on the run, taking them throughout Europe to Cuba, they obtained visas and were admitted into the United States.

In this serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns to help her eccentric Uncle Abe keep his landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Abe is convinced that Richard Moby, the CEO of an off-Island wholesale nursery, wants to destroy Abe personally and all Island nursery businesses generally. Abe is obsessed with “taking down” Moby. His efforts have so far been failures, but that doesn’t discourage him. Last week, a colleague nicknamed Cherry Bomb tried to warn Abe away from Moby.

Boat Safe Martha’s Vineyard was recently reaccredited by the United States Coast Guard and the National Association of Boating Law Administrators for the boating basics course taught on Island by Ron Walsh.

Sail MV

On Tuesday, August 19, Sail Martha’s Vineyard welcomes Matthew Stackpole, historian and past Sail MV president, who will present an illustrated talk entitled The Last Wooden Whaleship, about the Charles W. Morgan, her history and her future. The event begins at 7 p.m. at the Sail MV building at 110 Main street in Vineyard Haven. Admission is free.