This has not been a good blue crab season on the Vineyard. The Edgartown Great Pond is doing poorly compared with last year and there are lackluster reports from the Island’s other coastal ponds.

But that is the story with blue crabs. Some years the fishing is great and some years it is bad. Feast or famine and nothing much between.

Blue crabs and the state of the fishery, which is largely unregulated, is the subject of a public hearing in Tisbury next month.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

August can be a tough month for catching striped bass. It isn’t that the fish have gone south or disappeared, but they are certainly into their warm water August state of mind.

A painting of a well-known Menemsha-based trawler by Heather Neill has been given to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum by an anonymous donor. The eight by four-foot painting, titled Strider’s Surrender, evokes the decline the local fishing industry.

The Quitsa Strider II is owned by respected Island fishermen Jonathan Mayhew. In a move symbolic of the dire state of the local fishing industry, Mr. Mayhew sold his federal permits last year, giving up his license and putting up the vessel itself for sale.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

The days this summer for eating locally caught fluke on the Vineyard are coming to a close.

Fluke, also called summer flounder, are a flat fish. Their fillets are white and tasty, and most come from Vineyard Sound. Since the start of the summer, fluke have been the catch of the day.

On Tuesday, the state closed the commercial season for landing fluke, based on projected estimates that the state quota had been met.

Catch of the Day

Freshwater fishermen on the Vineyard who are interested in learning the mercury content of their catch are asked to call Alanna Purdy at 914-400-9241 to arrange for pickup and free analysis. The project is being sponsored by the Natural Resources Department of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).

Mark Alan Lovewell will present Fish Stories: Tales and Songs of Vineyard Fishermen, on Tuesday, August 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.

Mr. Lovewell, who works as reporter and photographer at the Vineyard Gazette, has been writing and singing songs about the Vineyard’s maritime history for many years.

On this evening, he will shift his attention to the commercial and recreational fishermen of the Island community. What makes a lobster pot work? Who are these fishermen and where do they go? What makes them laugh?

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

This is a summer of leatherback sea turtle sightings by local fishermen. Capt. Dick Smith of the charter fishing boat Patriot Too has seen quite a few of these large sea turtles in Vineyard waters.

“During the summer, the jellyfish come through Nantucket and Vineyard sounds,” Mr. Smith said. “Leatherback sea turtles are usually out there on the Gulf Stream, but their diet is jellyfish, so they are here.”

Earlier in July, the captain said, he saw quite a few sea turtles almost daily.

Class on Fly-Fishing

A fly-fishing class will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, August 9, at the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club off Third street North in Edgartown.

Sandra Demel and John Kollett will provide individualized instruction. Equipment will be provided or feel free to use your own. The class size is limited. The fee is $85 for club members and $100 for non-members. For information and to preregister, call 508-693-6338.

Overfishing may be the buzz word on the waterfront to explain the decline of many stocks of fish around Vineyard waters, but it isn’t heard often enough when it comes to explaining the loss of bait fish.

On Wednesday night at the Chilmark Public Library, a lone man stood before an audience of anglers and commercial fishermen to report the worst environmental tale needing to be told is the loss of one of the most valued forage fish in the ocean, which used to swim in abundance in these waters but is almost gone — menhaden.

Island waters are filled with bluefish, especially now. Striped bass fishing is sketchy and the bonito are only now arriving, but for Vineyard and Nantucket commercial and recreational anglers, there is one certainty: the bluefish are here.

Capt. Tom Mleczko of Nantucket reports bluefishing is good this summer for him, as good as it was last year. He fishes in a 29-foot Hawk called Priscilla J.