The state Department of Environmental Protection Monday granted Edgartown emergency authorization to dredge Katama Bay, clearing the way for a project intended to help restore the storm-battered South Beach.
Committees from Edgartown and Chilmark shuttled up to the state house last week and came back with nearly $300,000 in grant funding for coastal resiliency and climate change planning.
Katama Bay oyster farms reopened for business Thursday morning after a two-week closure because of Vibrio illness traced to consumption of raw oysters harvested from the water. The 12 aquaculture farms operating on the bay were back up and running early Thursday.
As Katama Bay oyster farms remain closed because of Vibrio illness tied to raw oysters, scientists are using the bay as a testing ground to understand more about the bacteria and how it interacts with oysters.
Katama Bay oyster farms will remain closed for another week following additional confirmed cases of Vibrio illness tied to the area, a state Department of Marine Fisheries official said Tuesday afternoon. Chris Schillaci told oyster farmers that handling is not the problem.
Katama Bay oyster farms have been closed for a week because of three cases of confirmed cases of Vibrio parahaemolyticus illness tied to consumption of raw oysters from the area, state officials announced Wednesday.
This month scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will descend on Edgartown with a sonar-equipped waverunner to map, in unprecedented resolution, the ever-shifting sands and currents of Katama Bay. While the bathymetry of the body of water, where change is a constant feature, is of special scientific interest to the Woods Hole scientists, the information is even more valuable for the surprising underwriter of the project: the U.S. Department of Defense.
