It is the end of the day and the sun hangs low and red over Sengekontacket Pond. The waters of Nantucket Sound are relatively flat due to a southerly shift in the wind earlier in the afternoon, but a few small waves break on the shoreline. Schools of bluefish surface about a quarter mile offshore. Terns follow the schools as they erratically move along.
Sengekontacket Pond
2013
2012
October 25, 2012
In a repeat of a presentation given to the Oak Bluffs selectmen last month, the Edgartown selectmen Monday heard serious warnings about reducing nitrogen levels in Sengekontacket Pond.
With members of the Joint Committee on Sengekontacket in attendance, the selectmen heard that based on a thorough review of the Massachusetts Estuaries Project study on the pond, nitrogen levels need to be reduced and removed.
September 27, 2012
With high levels of nitrogen in Sengekontacket Pond threatening everything from marine life to property values, state and local environmental officials have outlined an aggressive plan to clean up the pond that ranges from diverting wastewater from several watersheds to designating the entire pond as a district of critical planning concern.
August 23, 2012
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.
August 9, 2012
Sengekontacket Pond will re-open for shellfishing Friday morning following state tests that came back clean, Edgartown shellfish constable Paul Bagnall confirmed.
The pond was closed to shellfishing on July 31 after more than two inches of rain fell, and remained closed this week.
Water testing in the pond was done on Wednesday by the state Division of Marine Fisheries.
July 12, 2012
The time-honored Vineyard tradition of jumping off the Big Bridge into Sengekontacket Pond has now been joined by a yearly concern about the safety of jumpers — not for their daring leaps into the water below, but for the time they spend sitting and standing on the bridge as traffic whizzes by.
Low railings that divide pedestrians, including bridge jumpers, from Beach Road are the worry, and Oak Bluffs and Edgartown are taking steps to address the problem that they say ultimately should be dealt with by the state.
