The 48th annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby begins tonight, a minute past midnight. The contest is long-awaited, one of the true signs of Vineyard life after the peak of summer.

 

This year’s month-long contest is the world series of saltwater contests, attracting fishermen from up and down the Atlantic coast. This is the first year since 1984 that the striped bass will be included in the derby that bears its name, along with competi­tions for bluefish, false albacore and the bonito.

 

The striped bass, valued not only as a premier game fish but also as a commercial catch, is the subject of a three year, multi-million-dollar study by several federal agencies because of its apparently dwindling population.

 

The three year joint federal-state study of the striped bass populations in Massachusetts waters will start later this month, according to Fran­cis W. Sargent of Orleans, Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries, Department of Natural Resources. The announcement was made at the annual winter meeting of the Massa­chusetts Striped Bass Association, held Monday evening at American Legion Hall, Wollaston, where Mr. Sargent was the principle speaker.

 

The first hint of spring weather drew visitors in considerable numbers to the newly constructed Tashmoo Creek at Vineyard Haven, where the firm Turner and Breivogel is making the waterway which will turn the lower half of Lake Tashmoo into an arm of the sea. Although plans of the creek were drawn before the opening was votes, and these plans have been available to anyone, the appearance of the creek, as it begins to take shape, exceeds by far the popular conception of what it was to be.