In 1974, Universal Studios sent a new young director to the Island to make a movie about a big shark terrorizing a little town. The plan was to spend five weeks and 3.5 million dollars. The reality was a film shoot that stretched to over five months and a cost overrun to more than 8 million dollars.

The director was Steven Spielberg, the movie was Jaws, and the bottom line was history. Three Academy Awards. The first movie to earn $100 million from American audiences. The first to be released on more than 450 screens at once.

A 393-pound thresher shark was caught on Friday in waters south of the Vineyard. The fish, caught by Allen Bradley of Weatherfield Conn., was a record breaker for that species in the 14th annual Oak Bluffs Monster Shark Tournament.

A total of 82 boats from all along the Eastern Seaboard showed up for two intense days of fishing. They started fishing early in the morning and quit by 3:30 p.m. Most of the boats were home by late afternoon.

Some 245 acres of land once planned for 148 houses in the rural perimeters of Edgartown were sold last week to a golf club development group, closing a key chapter in a complicated land transaction which began nearly two years ago.

Total sale price was $15.9 million. The sale resulted in a sharp spike in revenues for the week for the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, which collected $318,000 in fees from the transaction.

On Oct. 19, 1991, 11 days before a piece of “the perfect storm” hit Martha’s Vineyard, three people left the Menemsha harbor on their way to the Bermuda. Nine days later, 100 miles from their destination, the three abandoned their sinking sailboat and all of their belongings to climb aboard a mammoth British container vessel that hours before had picked up their faint mayday call.

Loosening restrictions on land while tightening them on the water sparked considerable discussion at the Tisbury board of selectman meeting on Tuesday.

Sixteen proposed harbor regulations restricting when, where and how boats operate in Vineyard Haven harbor were debated during the public hearing.

A regulation stating “all commercial ferries shall operate within hours compliant to noise regulations” drew pointed comments from selectman Tristan Israel on the Steamship Authority’s adherence to harbor restrictions.

Million-dollar sales, mostly in Edgartown and Chilmark, are dominating the Island’s real estate market, as figures from the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank make abundantly clear.

Hard numbers illustrating the trend underscore urgent concerns about the lack of affordable housing, the subject of a standing-room-only forum last weekend.

A rising tide lifts all boats, and the evolution of million-dollar price tags from shocking rarities to barely remarked commonplaces has ratcheted up the cost of even the most basic shelter.

In a move that is expected to knock down many established barriers to the land protection movement, The Nature Conservancy announced this week that it will buy and put into private conservation 103 acres of land along the Edgartown Great Pond. The property just last year was planned for a private luxury golf club.

Formerly owned by Katharine and Robert Bigelow, the property stretches from Meetinghouse Way to the Kanomika Neck shore of the Great Pond fronting Mashacket Cove, and includes a large expanse of globally rare sandplain grassland.