Acting on the recommendation of the town shellfish committee, the Chilmark selectmen approved opening dates for scallop season Tuesday. Commercial scalloping begins Oct. 29 in Nashaquitsa Pond only, with Menemsha Pond set to open Nov. 19. Scallopers are limited to two heaping bushels per day. Family scalloping has been open since Oct. 1 and is limited to a half bushel per week.

Shellfish constable Isaiah Scheffer said the gap in dates is to allow “some of those scallops that are pretty densely populated time to grow before moving out to the main pond, where it’s looking pretty good out there.”

“The pond looks good,” he continued. “We have another good set of seed. Three years in a row we’ve had a lot of different age classes and clusters of age classes, which is a good sign.”

Family oyster season in Tisbury Great Pond also begins Oct. 29 and is limited to recreational permits.

In other business, selectmen heard from state department of energy resources coordinator Seth Pickering about options for the town to become a green community. The town would have to comply with five steps before applying for the designation, including expedited permitting procedures, calculating a municipal energy use baseline and a 20 per cent energy reduction plan, purchasing fuel efficient vehicles and adopting the so-called stretch energy code into a new town bylaw.

West Tisbury and Tisbury are the only state-designated green communities on the Vineyard. Mr. Pickering said the soonest the town could apply for the designation would be one year from now.