Mark Alan Lovewell
The Vineyard’s first experimental blue mussel farm began operating in waters off Cape Higgon in Chilmark this past week.
Two weeks ago fishermen suspended a 500-foot cable 30 feet underwater in Vineyard Sound. Last week they hung lines on the cable that were loaded with juvenile blue mussels, held to the line by a biodegradable fabric called socks.
If the project is successful, by the end of next year the mussels will be marketable.
Aquinnah charter captain William (Buddy) Vanderhoop Jr. has heard plenty of Vineyard ghost stories. Most he doesn’t believe — but he is not without a belief in the supernatural. “There are spirits less harmful,” he said, “that are not spooky as most people would like.”
Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven, Chilmark and Aquinnah are all looking forward to a good bay scallop season this fall. With the commercial season still a week or two away or more, depending on the town, fishermen are readying small boats, drags and other gear.
Forecasters, aka shellfish constables, are cautiously optimistic.
“Nobody wants to forecast a better season than we actually get,” said Paul Bagnall, Edgartown shellfish constable. “I’d rather err on the other side, be conservative,” the longtime constable said.
The summer of 2009 will be remembered for primarily one thing: rain.
“Summer? It didn’t start until the first week of August,” said James H.K. Norton of Norton Farm in Vineyard Haven. “We had no sun for two months. We planted everything in a timely fashion, but nothing ripened because there wasn’t any sun.”
Island farmers, fishermen and sailors all were affected by the bad weather.
He won again. William A. Pate of West Tisbury, who spends his summers working at Cutler Bike Shop in Edgartown and his winters working as a carpenter, won the grand prize in the 64th annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. Three years ago, Mr. Pate won the boat in the derby.
The story gets better. Mr. Pate caught his winning fish this year, a 12.66-pound false albacore, from the boat he won in the 2006 derby.
A 23-foot sunken sailboat in Menemsha harbor was hauled up on Wednesday morning by a crew that included Menemsha Coast Guard, the town harbor master and the captain of a fishing boat and his mates.
Chet Wisniewski, 88, of Menemsha, said his sailboat, called Water Music, sank at noon in its slip on Saturday for no apparent reason.