In late winter, as the cold winds blow, the Edgartown Harbor is a quiet place, mostly populated by gulls, the Chappy ferry making its appointed rounds, and the occasional scalloper or oysterman.
On Katama Bay, oyster farmers are still working, tending their mesh cages. But due to dramatically depressed demand, most oysters maturing this spring will not be harvested.
Tisbury selectmen have continued until early April a hearing on Noah Mayrand’s application to farm oysters in a one-acre portion of Lake Tashmoo. It marks the first aquaculture permit application in town.
Oyster farming is no longer a promising trend but a vibrant reality and a million-dollar industry on the Vineyard, five members of the Island aquaculture community told a gathering at the Gazette newsroom Tuesday.
Edgartown selectmen voted Monday to extend the bay scalloping season in Katama Bay for an additional two weeks to account for available scallops and lost fishing days because of the weather.
The Edgartown shellfish committee will shelve for now a plan to expand oyster farms to Cape Pogue Pond, amid conflicting opinions about protecting the bay and a desire to build on aquaculture.
It’s been bad news for shellfishing on Martha’s Vineyard and beyond in recent days, from a state-ordered closure to the discovery last week of a heavy algae bloom in the Tisbury Great Pond.
