The Vineyard Conservation Society holds its annual Island-wide beach clean-up April 17.
Fewer beach closures are expected this summer due to changes in state regulations governing swimming safety. Under the new rules, water samples will have to show high bacteria counts on two consecutive days before a beach is closed.
Following an outpouring of criticism, selectmen announced Tuesday that the dredge spoils deposited at Inkwell this spring will come off before summer. A small group of protesters had picketed at the site one day earlier.
With Memorial Day close at hand, town officials in Oak Bluffs are scrambling to remedy a situation at Inkwell Beach where dark sediment has been deposited as part of a beach nourishment project.
South-facing beaches along Martha’s Vineyard are under high risk for rip currents today, the National Weather Service has announced. The warning will remain in effect through Monday evening.
In response to the warning, The Trustees of Reservations has closed the beach at Long Point Wildlife Refuge. Swimmers are encouraged to use the pond for swimming.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation has awarded the county a $75,000 grant to help finance a beach rehabilitation project, Dukes County manager Martina Thornton informed the county commissioners last week. The money will be used to move sand from Eastville Beach in Oak Bluffs to Joseph Sylvia State Beach, which lost a considerable amount of sand during Hurricane Sandy.
The grant will not completely cover the sand transport, but would give the county “starting seed money,” Ms. Thornton said.
Just about everything washes up on the beaches of Martha’s Vineyard at some point, from seaglass to messages in bottles. And last December, a few lucky beachcombers up-Island encountered a first: Pieces of a personal weather modification device. That’s the formal name. Informally, it’s simply a cloudmaker, a combination science experiment/art project created by Karolina Sobecka, 35, of New York city. Ms. Sobecka designed the cloudmaker as part of her Amateur Human project, which seeks to personalize human relationships with the environment.
