This year’s annual Christmas Bird Count participants, 65 in the field and 29 watching their feeders, found more birds than we had in recent years.

The Vineyard’s first offshore blue mussel farm has a new owner with a long-term vision for the local fishing industry. Stanley Larsen, owner of Menemsha Fish Market, recently took over a shellfish grant for the continued operation of the aquaculture farm.

Aiming for more uniform management of striped bass fisheries along the Atlantic coast, the state Division of Marine Fisheries will not seek an alternative to new regulations approved last year by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

For the first time since at least 2007, ice in the Edgartown harbor prevented the Chappaquiddick ferry from completing a trip across the harbor Monday morning. Capt. Jeff LaMarche was hampered by thick ice.

The ferocious mid-winter weather that has pummeled the Vineyard with snow, ice, wind and frigid temperatures continued without letup over the weekend as another blizzard roared through. The storm began late Saturday and lasted all day Sunday.