Nature & Science
The summer flounder, also called fluke, season is about to come to an end. The state will close the commercial season on Tuesday, August 11. The recreational season will close three days later.
Commercial fishermen cannot land any more fluke after 8 p.m. Tuesday. As of the end of last week, 85 per cent of the quota was taken in two months of fishing. The season opened on June 10 and the fishermen have had little trouble getting their 300-pound daily trip limit.
“Oh, The Places You Will Go!”
Dr. Seuss was prophetic (and likely his words and works always will be). I have been lucky to have been able to go to many wild and wonderful places both near andfar. The places that inspire me most are always close to water.
Friday, July 31: Partly cloudy. Clouds darken. Skies are threatening. Heavy rain arrives late. The sound of large raindrops sound off on a Vineyard Haven roof.
The Chilmark Community Center birding group had the pleasure of driving out on Norton Point with Nan Harris on August 4. Page Rogers had e-mailed photos of a marbled godwit that she had taken the day before at Norton Point. Marbled godwits are rare visitors to the Vineyard with only five records prior to this one, so this trip was to target the marbled godwit.
Fish can come back.
A research paper published in last Friday’s journal Science concludes that while fish stocks remain threatened by overfishing, collaboration among scientists and fisheries managers can reverse the trend.
Boris Worm, a marine ecologist with Dalhousie University in Halifax and other scientists published a report in 2006 citing evidence that if current trends continued, all commercially harvestable fish would be gone by 2048.
The Friday report in Science takes an entirely different view.
The Home Port restaurant in Menemsha has turned its back door green.
New owners Bob and Sarah Nixon and chef Johnny Graham saw environmental sustainability as an area where the landmark restaurant could improve in this, its 80th year of business, and they are starting with the huge volume of disposables that go through the eatery’s back door take-out facility every day.
Almanac
A comprehensive guide to weather and tides on the Island.
Vineyard Gardener
I guess this past week weather-wise is called a January thaw. We did not really experience it the last several years as December was unseasonably warm.
Farm & Field
Beige and brown and tan and black, with horns spiraled or semicircular or in undulating waves, a legion of goats marched up the hill toward us, bleating in anticipation of fresh grass and leaves.