The sun fell behind the Chilmark Pond the other day, casting long shadows across the landscape as sheep grazed above at the Allen Farm. It was one of those April days where the spring air felt washed and clean, like a fresh batch of laundry snapping on the line. A brisk wind made little ripples across the pond. And for just a minute it felt like everything was right with the world.

But beneath the surface of our saltwater ponds on the Vineyard, everything is not right. Eelgrass beds have been disappearing at an alarming rate, nitrogen overload is now evident in nearly every pond and water quality is deteriorating, especially in isolated coves and other areas that have poor circulation. Strange algae blooms are occurring with increasing frequency. All these problems pose a grave threat to our local finfish and shellfish, rich natural resources that not only feed us but provide a significant boost for tourism and the local economy.

The Massachusetts Estuaries Project, a private-public partnership between the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and the state Department of Environmental Protection, has been studying nearly ninety saltwater estuaries and embayments throughout Southeastern Massachusetts for the last several years. The point of the study is to track with precision the sources of pollution, using sophisticated technology now available for such work. The estuaries study has not been the perfect project we envisioned when it was first launched, and for a time the work was slowed due to funding problems and political infighting between its off-Island sponsors. But with those problems now in the past, it is important to focus on the goal of the project: obtaining better information through sound science to develop a profile of the health of our ponds. To that end it is worth the money for towns to participate in the project, and it was good to see Chilmark voters at their annual town meeting and election this week approve funding to include the Chilmark and Menemsha pond systems in the study.

With some of the pond studies now complete and others nearing the end, the crucial next step of acting on the findings of the estuary studies has already begun around the Island. Edgartown is planning sewer expansions in key areas to protect the Great Pond, and Tisbury is considering adjustments in the town sewer expansion plan as a result of the study for the Lagoon Pond. The Friends of Sengekontacket have been actively involved in using the study for that pond as a basis for a number of projects.

Water does not respect town borders, however, and the results of the estuaries studies can offer the basis for an overall plan of action for protecting the Island’s ponds. Who will take the lead on this important project, in each town and from a regional perspective? Certainly the Martha’s Vineyard Commission should be involved, as well as conservation leaders in every Island town.

The work must begin now, as the delicate balance in the health of our ponds continues to shift right before our eyes.