Hello, Isabella

Ryan and Kelley Cobb of Bridgewater announce the birth of a daughter, Isabella Cobb, on May 6 in South Shore Hospital in Weymouth. She weighed 9 pounds. She is the great-granddaughter of Katherine Manning of Oak Bluffs.

Legislation designed to protect migrating right whales could have an unintended, devastating impact on ferry services to the Vineyard and Nantucket, the Steamship Authority has warned.

Under draft rules attached to the legislation, any sighting of a right whale would trigger the imposition of a strict, 10-knot speed limit on ships more than 65 feet long, operating within a so-called “dynamic management area” with a 36-mile radius, for 15 days from the time of the sighting.

The smoke may have cleared from the controlled burn performed by the U.S. Navy last Wednesday on Noman’s Land, but questions remain this week as to whether more could have been done to alert the public and prevent the confusion that led to a barrage of calls to the Island communications center.

Officials at the Dukes County communications center last week received between 50 to 100 calls while the fire burned on Noman’s, the small uninhabited island off the southern coast of Chilmark.

In a move that sets the stage for the town of Oak Bluffs to break ranks with the controversial Boston Big Game Fishing Club Monster Shark Tournament, a divided board of selectmen on Tuesday voted to deny a one-day liquor license for shark tournaments.

Following the vote, tournament organizer Steven James said the town’s action provides grounds for a lawsuit. He accused selectmen of discriminating against the popular fishing tournament and fishermen in general.