Due to high bacteria counts, the state Division of Marine Fisheries
closed portions of two large Island ponds to shellfishing this week
- one up-Island and the other down-Island.

The closures are effective immediately in part of the Tisbury Great
Pond and at Major's Cove in Sengekontacket Pond, although town
leaders have not yet received official letters of notification.

Last summer the Vineyard Conservation Society succeeded in convincing Islanders that their ponds were indeed in peril. At this year’s Ponds in Peril forum, Islanders learned what they could do about it.

Cribbing a famous line from an infamous late U.S. president, it is public enemy number one in Southeastern Massachusetts, although this time the enemy is not drugs but nitrogen. Nitrogen poses a serious threat to the health of our coastal ponds and saltwater embayments that were once pristine and are now in alarming states of decline. Eelgrass beds are gone or disappearing, and along with them the clean shellfish that both provide a rich source of food and form a key cog in the local economy.