Vineyard consumers are enjoying the lowest retail prices on bay scallops in at least ten years thanks to a renewed abundance of the tasty bivalve on Nantucket.

The Nantucket resurgence has been pushing down wholesale as well as retail prices on both Islands.

At Menemsha Seafood in Chilmark, owner Stanley Larsen said the retail price for bay scallops is around $16. His cousin, Louis Larsen of the Net Result, a fish market in Vineyard Haven, said the retail price is about the same at his store.

NANTUCKET - Walter Beinecke's name is spoken with a sense of awe and an undercurrent of resentment.

NANTUCKET - On a hot Tuesday morning, tourists clog Nantucket's cobblestone streets, strolling from boutique to art gallery to coffee shop.

Walking from Main to Centre streets, they sip a latte, buy a hooded island sweatshirt and brunch at the Jared Coffin House, knowing nothing of the obstacles this old whaling city has overcome just to serve them.

On any summer day a few years ago, a light breeze could carry a thick stench miles from the peak of the overgrown Madaket landfill. Today, to a viewer atop the grassy mound three stories high, only a few pieces of lingering debris around the perimeter recall the 22-acre landfill so noxious that the state forced its capping in 1999.

NANTUCKET - - The people of Nantucket had their crack at the podium this week, turning out more than 150 strong to urge a special governor's ferry task force to protect the Steamship Authority and their lifeline.

"The rate-payers of the Islands are not responsible for reviving the economy of New Bedford. Folks, the Steamship Authority is not an entitlement program," declared Steve Tornovish, a member of the SSA financial advisory board from Nantucket.