For those outdoors early Sunday morning, the crescent moon appears close to the ringed-planet Saturn.

If you want to know how the year in weather was on the Vineyard, ask the farmers, who had plenty of warm sunshine during the day and just enough rain at night for their crops. Ask the swimmers, who were in their element in the warm ocean water all summer. Ask Island children, whose sleds stayed high and dry for most of the winter.

When the stars come out on New Year’s Eve, you can expect the gibbous moon to rise in the east at 8 p.m.

The New England Fishery Management Council delayed a decision yesterday on drastic cuts to the ailing groundfishery, amid impassioned testimony from fishermen who said the deep cuts would spell the end of their livelihood. “[The fishery] has been declared a disaster . . . this will make it a reality,” said Frank Mirarchi, a Scituate draggerman. “This means the boats will fail and the families will fail. This will be the end of an era.”

In what fisheries experts are calling an historic measure to curb overfishing, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted late last week to reduce the fishing of menhaden by 20 per cent in the coming year.

The 20 per cent reduction takes effect July 1, 2013.

Winter officially arrived this morning at 6:12 a.m. and from here on the days will grow longer. There are two more weeks of sunrises that are the latest of the season, but this will change. Sunsets have already begun to get later, about a minute every other day. Sunrises will be earlier in the morning beginning Jan. 11.