More Spectacle Than Sport

The Boston Big Game Fishing Club Monster Shark Tournament has worn out its welcome, not only in the host town of Oak Bluffs, but on the Vineyard altogether.

It is hard to know precisely when the tournament changed from a sport fishing event to a spectacle on the Oak Bluffs harborfront with dead, bloody sharks hung from hooks for weighing. Some say it was the year the television cameras for ESPN arrived, thrusting the tournament — and again the Vineyard — into an unwelcome national spotlight.

Beachcombing Interrupted

The recent discovery old buried ordnance at Cape Pogue serves as a vivid reminder of the past and the active role the Vineyard played during World War II. It may be hard to picture it today, but the Vineyard was a key military installation and training ground for the war.

Restoring the Public Trust

The stripping of protected Vineyard conservation land to provide native plants for a private estate on the North Shore in West Tisbury has thrust the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation — the venerable land trust founded by the late longtime editor of this newspaper who campaigned fearlessly for the preservation of the Vineyard environment — uncomfortably into the public eye.

KEEP EDUCATION STRONG

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I want the voters who will be voting on the override on May 28 in Oak Bluffs to know how strongly I oppose placing the town’s budget problems on just the schools. With less than 40 per cent of the town’s budget, the schools in Oak Bluffs are being asked to fund 100 per cent of the budget override. This is wrong. This is a town problem, not just a school problem.

Last week Gazette readers saw and read about the removal of trees and sod from properties on the Island, two of which are under the stewardship of Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation.