Undue Pier Pressure

The American Academy of Pediatrics this week revealed that children and teens in the United States are spending an average of seven hours a day using television, computers, telephones and other electronic devices for entertainment.

On the same day this news came out, Island children Tate and Corbin Buchwald, Lauren DeCastro and Lachlan Cormie saw their names go on the board as daily winners in the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.

It’s a fair bet these young anglers also have enjoyed the derby’s annual kids’ day, the single time of the year when lines can be cast from the Steamship Authority wharf in Oak Bluffs. Morning cartoons can’t compare with reeling in your own catch first thing in the day. Suddenly they want a tackle box more than an X-box.

Meanwhile the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game wants to build a fishing pier just west of the ferry wharf at no cost to Oak Bluffs. No swimming would be allowed from the pier, and no boats or dinghies would be allowed to tie up to it. It would be one of the only wheelchair-accessible fishing piers on the Island, and in the letters on these pages today, aging parents and grandparents applaud the prospect of being able to share with their young family members the lifetime pastime of fishing.

The pier is under review at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, where North Bluff residents have opposed it on several grounds, including the loss of beach, noise, traffic and the prospect of hooligans gathering there. Fishing is a quiet outdoor sport, fishing traffic is unlikely to compare to nearby ferry traffic, and as for nefarious gatherings, we suggest the happy atmosphere at Edgartown’s Memorial Wharf as a comparison that might offer comfort to the residents. The proposed pier might very well enhance their neighborhood.

It certainly seems an enhancement to the Island, and one that should garner official support in short order.