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.

Putting in Place a Plan to Save Our Ponds Costly and Politically
Tricky, Forum Hears

By CHRIS BURRELL

By the time anyone notices that a coastal pond or bay is choked with
floating drifts of green algae, the events that caused it happened
decades ago.

Nitrogen leaching from septic systems and runoff of pollutants from
black-topped roadways and parking lots did their damage 20 or 30 years
ago, said marine scientist Brian L. Howes, a professor at University of
Massachusetts, Dartmouth.

The Navy has taken a leasehold right for the duration of the war from the commonwealth of Massachusetts and others on that portion of Squibnocket Pond which lies west of a line drawn north and south through the westerly shore of Beachgrass Island, so called. This line is marked by a series of buoys. The area around the pond has been conspicuously posted, warning people off the waters of the pond.