The New England Fishery Management Council voted Thursday to limit the number of river herring and shad incidently caught by trawlers in federal waters. The cap is the latest in a series of state and federal measures underway to protect the species of fish, whose populations are at historic lows.

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In the wee hours of tomorrow morning, soon after midnight tonight, the near quarter moon and the planet Jupiter will rise together in the east. They are a pair in the zodiacal constellation Gemini, a constellation associated with the depth of winter, when the air is frosty and nights are long.

Jupiter is the brightest of planets in the late night sky. It is also the largest in the solar system. Jupiter will continue to be better placed for viewing in the weeks ahead. 

By November, Jupiter will be rising in the east at 9 p.m.

It is not easy to describe Jill McLean Taylor in few words. She was a New Zealander who married an Irish man and made her home in America, a physical therapist who went back to school and earned her doctorate while raising three sons. She was the kind of professor who took calls from students at night and the kind of person who researched the women of her family, spurred on by five words in an obituary. She had a big smile, her friends and family recall, and a messy office.

Tearing down old buildings is most often cheaper than restoring them, so the sale of two antique houses to private buyers this week marks a positive turn for historic preservation on the Vineyard.

The Old Parsonage in West Tisbury, a seventeenth century farmhouse believed to be the second oldest home on the Island, and the Warren House, an eighteenth century merchant’s home on North Water street in Edgartown, are both in urgent need of extensive renovations.

The house sits at the far end of Quansoo Road in Chilmark, through a meadow of goldenrod and tall grasses overlooking Tisbury Great Pond. It is perhaps the oldest house on Martha’s Vineyard, more than three centuries old, and one of the finest existing examples of multi-century architecture on the Island.

Richard North Patterson likes to think of himself as a method actor. The 66-year-old writer and part-time resident of West Tisbury writes mostly fiction, but while his characters are born out of the quiet space in his imagination, he said, their every thought and movement is grounded in research.

Years ago during the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, Ron Domurat went out shorefishing with his old friend Donald Mohr. The two hit upon a school of false albacore and each hooked a fish at the same time. The fish were twins, Mr. Domurat recalled earlier this week, “down to the hundredth of a pound.” He brought the albies to weigh-in at derby headquarters and as a good friend would, gave the weighmaster Mr. Mohr’s fish first.

The Oak Bluffs selectmen voted Tuesday to restrict traffic on East Chop Drive to one lane this winter out of concern for the unstable condition of the eroding bluff beneath the road. The vote came as the town continues to wrangle for funding to fix the bluff, and as East Chop residents press for a complete closure of the road this winter.

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank reported revenues of $262,051 for the business week ending on Friday, Sept. 20, 2013. The land bank receives its funds from a two per cent fee charged on many Vineyard real estate transactions.