The waters south of the Vineyard will soon become among the best studied in the world. At the continental shelf break, some 80 miles south of South Beach where North America begins its descent toward the abyssal plain, a huge swath has been identified by scientists to be monitored, dissected and measured in resolutions and over time scales unprecedented in oceanography.
After a clerical error in this year’s community development block grant application saw the Island miss out on $2 million in money for child care assistance and housing rehabilitation, Oak Bluffs residents in need will still get some relief from an overlooked program account.
For the wild food crowd, grocery shopping begins when you leave the supermarket. On the other side of those automatic sliding doors is a diffuse (and free) marketplace filled with geese, berries, turtles, seaweed, deer, scallops and basically anything else you can digest. This Sunday marks the second annual Martha’s Vineyard Local Wild Food Challenge, and organizer and chef Bill Manson has imported the resourceful philosophy of the hunter-gatherer from his native New Zealand. The contest takes place at the Rod and Gun Club in Edgartown, beginning at 4 p.m.
Greg Mayhew, captain of the 75-foot dragger Unicorn out of Menemsha, is the last Vineyard fisherman still groundfishing on Georges Bank. And this year might be his last on the legendary fishing ground.
“I don’t know if I’m going to even go next year because it might be better just to lease the days out and get half price for them,” he said.
The outlook for the fisheries is improving, a leading federal administrator told a congressional panel in Boston early this week, but lawmakers were unconvinced.
Paul Adler climbed up a ladder toward the top of the giant parabolic solar collector in his West Tisbury backyard carrying a long wooden plank.
“You want to see something burn?” he asked.
The giant mirrored dish is essentially a reverse magnifying glass, with the sunlight concentrated at a 10-inch absorber at the dish’s center that is almost too bright to look at. Angling the plank directly into the 1,200-degree beam, the wood instantly ignites.
“You should have brought some hamburgers,” Mr. Adler said.
