Islanders and vacationers — thousands of them — celebrated the Fourth of July on a day packed with parades, picnics and fireworks.

Uncle Seth’s Pond in West Tisbury has been closed to swimmers, the town selectmen confirmed on Wednesday. The likely cause is bacterial contamination, selectman Kent Healy said.

One month, six dead whales, four of them females. The North Atlantic right whale population is still fluttering on the point of extinction despite a trans-national conservation effort.