As Hurricane Bill threatened offshore and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency issued a warning to swimmers and boaters about high seas and strong currents this weekend, the town of Chilmark is considering changes in beach safety protocol in light of two swimmer deaths and several dramatic rescues in the past month.

Hurricane Bill yesterday was traveling north-northwest from off the east coast of Central America, spreading high swells over the western Atlantic and is projected to pass some 200 miles off the coast of Massachusetts sometime on Sunday.

The emergency management agency has warned the storm could have a major impact on surf conditions.

An agency notice released yesterday tells bathers never to swim alone, and preferably on a beach with lifeguards, and to swim parallel to the beach toward weaker currents if caught in a rip.

“With hurricane season underway,” the release adds, “it is a good reminder to take the proper steps to ensure your family’s safety.”

In a summer that has featured rough surf and dangerous conditions resulting in an unusually high number of incidents of swimmers in distress across the south shore of the Vineyard and on Cape Cod beaches, Chilmark has been particularly affected.

Confusion hampered rescue efforts in the death of Lawrence Shedd, 49, of New Hampshire, swimming at the private Quansoo Beach on August 4. Rescuers initially responded on the West Tisbury side of the opening of the Tisbury Great Pond, forcing rescue personnel to wade across a stretch of water to reach Mr. Shedd.

Less than a week later William K. Laidlaw, 66, of Ohio died at Abel’s Hill Beach, which is also private. Chilmark police chief Brian Cioffi said this week that with cause yet to be determined by the medical examiner’s office for Mr. Laidlaw, he is referring to the two incidents as swimmer deaths.

Chilmark has two town resident beaches at Squibnocket and Lucy Vincent, a public beach at Menemsha and a handful of private beaches. Though beach guards patrol town and public beaches, many of the private beaches are remote and difficult to reach by rescue vehicles.

The weekend after the death of Mr. Laidlaw, emergency rescue services were called to Abel’s Hill beach when a swimmer was caught in rough seas while looking for a dropped camera.

And on a Monday, between those incidents, a dramatic rescue was made by a swimmer on Abel’s Hill.

David Wallis who is co-owner of the Granary Gallery in West Tisbury and swims regularly at Abel’s Hill, was on the beach with his family, at an area of the beach with a sand bar that Mr. Wallis considers safe for swimming.

“There was another family down the beach and their kids and our kids were getting along fine,” he said.

When Mr. Wallis’s son went swimming, the children, two boys, from the other party entered the water further down the beach and began to swim diagonally to the Wallises and were soon caught in a rip.

The mother saw what was happening and ran into the water. When she reached one son, he pushed her under the water, according to Mr. Wallis, who also ran into the ocean after the mother, leaping over several boogie boards that he said would have aided the rescue attempt.

Reaching the swimmers, Mr. Wallis pulled the son off his mother and the mother and one of the children were swept off to the side out of the rip.

“The surf wasn’t high but it was breaking in quick succession and it was hard to get up to get a breath,” he said. Mr. Wallis was later sick from water intake but he finally managed to eddy out of the current supporting the other child.

He said the whole event lasted less than three minutes.

“I was stupid,” he added. “I was in trouble too.”

Mr. Willis said that though there is a buoy under the stairs leading to the beach and a sign explaining riptides, a larger sign is needed with diagrams about safety and rescue and warning that there are no lifeguards on the beach.

“It sure would have made a difference for me,” he said. “I think you need an illustration you can visualize; if I had had a billboard image like that in my head, I would have gone to pick up the buoy and I would have definitely picked up the boogie board. Anyone who has a boogie board can use that to make a rescue.”

At a meeting this week, Chilmark selectmen told police chief Brian Cioffi that now is the time for a review of safety procedures.

“It seems to me we have a golden opportunity here,” he said. “How are we doing? Did we do a great job; did anyone involved think of something we could improve on? Should there be lifeguard stands and a set of lifeguard drills?”

Chief Cioffi said he attended the annual Quansoo Beach Association meeting and discussed ideas about getting emergency responders and equipment onto the beach. He said he met with a caretaker for Hancock Beach and attended last week’s Chilmark beach committee meeting to discuss new protocol for similar incidents.

He has also spoken to the town fire chief about developing a set of known access points for the various beaches along the Chilmark south shore, some of which are private, remote and have several points of access.

“I want known access points not, ‘If Crab Creek’s at high tide or if Crab Creek’s at low tide or if Black Point has a lot of rain and it’s muddy’ . . . I want known locations where we can access the beach,” he said. “I know how to get onto Hancock Beach.”

Mr. Doty said particularly important are safety standards for the lesser known, private beaches.

“As a town maybe we’ve taken the attitude in the past that if people swim on private beaches it’s their problem. But we can’t just say we cover Vincent beach; on those other beaches you swim at your own risk. We need to have plans for those other beaches even though they won’t let me swim there,” he said.

Selectmen scheduled a meeting for Sept. 22 to discuss the matter further with the beach committee, emergency services and members of the public.