From a 1958 essay by Onslow Robinson:

Where was the Oyster Shell Road? What part of Vineyard Haven was known as Down the Neck? And did you ever hear of the Pine Tree Club?

Last week several right whales were spotted off the Vineyard, and the Gazette ran a story about it. Of course any appearance of the endangered whales is highly unusual and newsworthy.

CONFLICTED LOYALTY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

There are no statistics to show how many Islanders actually leave the Island during the winter school break, which falls this week, one week after most of the rest of public schools in Massachusetts take their winter break. The Martha’s Vineyard Commission does not track the numbers nor does the Steamship Authority, at least with any precision, when it comes to Islanders and their travel habits.

Figures recently released by a federal monitoring program should have more than raised loud alarm bells: total catch of striped bass by recreational fishermen in Massachusetts has fallen by almost 84 per cent over the past six years. In 2006, more than eight million fish were reported taken by rod-and-reel sports anglers. In 2011, the preliminary figure was 1.3 million. Even over the course of a year, the decrease was 690,000 fish, or 34 per cent less than in 2010.