Edgartown conservation officials are taking new measures to protect shorebirds after the New Year's Day Breach washed away the tern population's favorite nesting spot on Norton Point.

In this week's 10-minute wrap-up of the news, summer airline traffic continued to climb in 2025, reaching an unprecedented high of more than 87,000 people arriving to the Vineyard by air. And what’s lunch like at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School? Tune in for pasta Alfredo served up on the podcast.

Surging swells severed Chappaquiddick from the Vineyard during a breach at Norton Point that has been growing since it formed New Year’s Day. 

The Chappaquiddick summer home owned by Sue and Jerry Wacks that has been severely threatened by the recent breach along Norton Point was demolished over the weekend.

The Norton Point breach opened on Dec. 27 and followed a series of storms that had battered the south-facing shore of Martha’s Vineyard. The Chappaquiddick summer home owned by Sue and Jerry Wacks stands as a lonely sentinel by the sea these days.

For the first time in more than a decade, a breach at Norton Point beach has officially made Chappaquiddick an island once more.

Two days of mild conditions were enough to heal the barrier beach after the ocean broke through during stormy weather Sunday.

The recent opening on Chappaquiddick appears to have closed again. On Saturday afternoon Edgartown artist Dana Gaines photographed the barrier beach — dry and dotted with surfcasters.

This historic footage of a home movie shot in 1932 shows villagers attempting to dig a canal by hand to open Norton Point Beach to the sea, part of a town effort to invigorate the shellfish beds at Katama Bay.

A storm last week sent ocean surf rushing over the narrow barrier beach, severing Chappaquiddick from the rest of the Vineyard once again. The question now is how long the opening will last, and few are willing to venture a guess.