Katama Bay oyster farms in Edgartown have been closed due to an outbreak of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp), the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Department of Fish and Game, Division of Marine Fisheries announced Monday.

An unmanned rocket launched by NASA and headed for the moon was visible in the night sky off the south side of Martha's Vineyard late Friday night. The five-stage Minotaur rocket was launched from the Virginia coast at 11:27 p.m.

Seas around the Vineyard are rising slightly faster than the global average and Island planners should prepare for significant sea level rise by the end of the century, a new climate change report has found.

The Vineyard Conservation Society report examines the effects of climate change on the Martha’s Vineyard and its surroundings.

Off the coast of Chatham, a team of nearly 20 expert fishermen and scientists from around the country is ready. For the past 30 days they have lived and fished aboard the M/V OCEARCH in hopes of capturing, examining and tagging live white sharks.

Vineyard local restaurants began serving locally harvested blue mussels in July and the prospects for the future look even better. Alec Gale of the Menemsha Fish House said he was pleased with the results. The last of the locally harvested blue mussels were shipped this week but there may be more.

Tick season reaches its peak in the month of August, and a group of researchers from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Environmental Protection Agency took advantage of the warm weather to work on their latest effort in the quest to understand tick-borne diseases.