Harpooned swordfish, once synonymous with the Fourth of July holiday and a staple of the Menemsha fishing fleet, are no longer being caught by Vineyard fishermen.

Though prevalent in local fish markets this season, harpooned swordfish are now all being caught by fishermen from afar.

The reason has to do with a convoluted bureaucracy, an expensive permit system and waning interest in the age-old method of catching fresh swordfish.

The thousands of baby flounder being raised at the Wampanoag Tribe’s Aquinnah hatchery will be released late this summer at Clam Point in Nashaquitsa Pond, part of the Menemsha Pond system, according to the lead scientist of the two-year project to raise winter flounder in captivity and release them into safe waters.

Elizabeth A. Fairchild, of the University of New Hampshire, told a gathering last week at Chilmark Public Library that the Aquinnah project, overlooking Menemsha Pond, has been a great success thusfar in raising the tiny fish.

Until recently, Janet Messineo never considered herself an artist. Never mind that over the past 25 years Ms. Messineo, the Island’s only taxidermist, has recreated life itself thousands of times over, as evidenced by the glistening fish of all sizes adorning the walls of her basement workrooms. Although there are a few odd birds in one room, and a set of deer hooves lying on a shelf in another, there’s no question about what Ms. Messineo’s speciality is.

An eight to ten-foot blue shark was spotted meandering the shallow waters of Dogfish Bar in Aquinnah on Saturday afternoon.

Benny Syslo, 20 of Chilmark, was out fishing for striped bass and bluefish with longtime friend Cam Alexander of Vineyard Haven in Mr. Syslo’s 21-foot Carolina Skiff on Saturday. At about 3 p.m., Mr. Syslo spotted the shark swimming close to the surface. The fish came into water as shallow as three feet, he said. They followed it for about a half hour.

In a reversal this week, Vineyard fishermen dropped their lawsuit over the Cape Wind project, with Cape Wind in turn agreeing to support access and a new permit program for fishermen who make a living in the waters around Horseshoe Shoal.

At a conference call with members of the Island and regional media Tuesday, Cape Wind communications director Mark Rodgers and Warren Doty, president of the Martha’s Vineyard/Dukes County Fishermen’s Association, announced that the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court two years ago, would be dropped.