All the saltwater ponds on the Vineyard are impaired to some degree, and each one faces a unique set of conditions. Public interest has reached a tipping point.

Sengekontacket Pond has been closed to shellfishing because of rainfall received earlier this week.

The town of Oak Bluffs has advised that the pond will be closed until at least Monday, August 17.

The state mandates pond closures after heavy rainfall because of run-off from waterfowl and other sources. Red flags fly at both bridges on the pond when it is closed to shellfishing.

The draw began with duck hunting in the early 1900s. Tisbury Great Pond was a haven for waterfowl, and wealthy Boston gentlemen took notice.

While the Vineyard is perhaps best known for the ocean, Vineyarders have deep ties to the ponds that were carved into the Island landscape some 20,000 years ago.

Island ponds are a connection to cultural heritage and a livelihood for fishermen. But housing booms and land-use changes threaten to undo a delicate balance.

Martha’s Vineyard is a bellwether of climate change, sea level rise and socioeconomic dynamics. It also is a place with both the interest in and commitment to dealing with its effects.

On Cape Cod ambitious efforts are underway to remediate ponds and estuaries. And when coastal ponds decline, so do property values, the executive director of the Cape Cod Commission, told a meeting at the Katharine Cornell Theatre.

A pair of quahauggers stood waist-deep in Sengekontacket Pond early Thursday morning, the late August sun glinting off the calm water as they raked hardshell clams, perhaps a basketful for their dinner. The pond has been open to summer shellfishing this year for the first time since 2007.

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.

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.