Nature & Science
If you are a young fisherman, or the parent of same, the best advice for tonight is go to bed early. The 35th annual Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club trout tournament begins at first light at Duarte’s Pond in West Tisbury.
As many as 200 children are expected at the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank property off Lambert’s Cove Road. The pond was stocked yesterday with hatchery trout.
Organizers are counting on the fish to be hungry.
Eric Brown of Edgartown has a secret.
Like many fishermen, when it comes to his favorite angling spot, Eric does not fish and tell. But, he did call last week to share a fish tale.
The star of the story is an unusual animal: an American brook lamprey, which, to be accurate, is not a true fish. True fish, taxonomically-speaking, have jaws, while lampreys are jawless. Lampreys also do not have bones, scales or paired fins.
What has 16 million bricks, the dark red ones from Maine and the remaining lighter pinky-red bricks from Pensacola, Fla., and is 90 miles from Cuba and equal distance from mainland Florida? Fort Jefferson.
By LYNNE IRONS
The Ocean Advisory Commission will hold a public workshop tomorrow in Woods Hole in preparation of the draft ocean plan for the commonwealth.
Since passage of the Oceans Act in 2008, effort has been underway to develop the Massachusetts Ocean Plan for the nearshore waters of the commonwealth, which includes the land and waters between 1,500 feet and three miles from shore, under town and commonwealth jurisdiction. The Oceans Act requires the plan to be drafted by the end of June and adopted before the end of December of this year.
The hardest planet to see could be easy to spot tonight and tomorrow night. Mercury appears low in the southwestern sky after sunset, in the familiar star cluster Pleiades.
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.