After one of the busiest summers in recent memory for recreational boating in Cape Pogue Pond, the Edgartown marine advisory committee is proposing a temporary ban on anchoring in the pond.
The new Dike Bridge is complete and now open for pedestrian traffic. Gates are being installed today and in a week, the bridge will be open to limited off-road vehicle use.
“They’ve done a great job,” said Edgartown highway superintendent Laurence A. Mercier. “The contractor G. M. Berkley did excellent work. We had a state inspector down on Wednesday and he said there are no problems. The bridge will be open soon.” The bridge was built at a cost of $182,256 and paid for by the state. It passes over Poucha Pond.
Researchers believe they have found fragments from a World War II-era bomber plane that crash-landed in the frigid waters off Chappaquiddick during a doomed practice dive in the winter of 1946.
The Edgartown shellfish committee delayed a formal decision on a plan to open Cape Pogue Pond for oyster farms, with tension over protecting a pristine pond and competing interests.
A green sea turtle named Quiddick that was rescued from the chilly waters of Cape Pogue Pond 11 months ago reentered Vineyard waters last Friday as a fully recovered wild animal.
A crew of New England Aquarium personnel, together with a veterinarian with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries service in Woods Hole, watched with pleasure as Quiddick and an even more rare Kemp's Ridley sea turtle named Kiwi moved from the beach to the surf. The release took place in the early afternoon at Long Point Wildlife Refuge, owned by The Trustees of Reservations.
Bay scallops have spawned with a vengeance this summer in Cape Pogue Pond. Once ranked among the most productive ponds for scallop landings in the state, Cape Pogue is teeming with juvenile bay scallops, many about the size of a dime.
It takes 18 months for a bay scallop to reach harvestable size, which means if these juvenile scallops survive the coming winter, predation and other environmental factors, the fall of 2011 will be a banner year for scalloping.
