Sports
Eric F. Pachico stepped out of the heavy rain carrying a large striped bass this morning. It was 8:42 a.m., the derby headquarters had been open since 8 a.m., but he was the first angler with a fish.
The heavy rain began this morning at 6 a.m., and in two hours already half an inch had fallen at the National Weather Service cooperative station in Edgartown. And the forecast was for more. While the fish don’t care, anglers lose interest when it rains.
The hunting season for Canada geese ended yesterday after being open since Sept. 2. Hunting for pheasant opens on Saturday, Oct. 18., and ends on Nov. 29. The coastal duck season runs from Oct. 17 to Oct. 25. Cottontail rabbit season runs from Nov. 15 to Feb. 28.
Archery deer season is from Oct. 13 to Nov. 22. Shotgun season runs from Dec. 1 to Dec. 13. Primitive firearms runs from Dec. 15 to Dec. 31. Last year 460 deer were taken on Martha’s Vineyard during the season. A total of 622 were taken in 2006.
In a game as thrilling as it was heartbreaking, the Carver Crusaders defeated the Vineyarders football team 23-21 on Friday night after scoring a game-tying touchdown and converting a two-point attempt with seconds left on the clock.
The Vineyarders (1-1) had late game heroics of their own, scoring with 1:38 on the clock when Mike McCarthy hit Nick Gross in the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown pass to take a 21-15 lead. But the Crusaders stormed right back and tied the game on a 35-yard touchdown run by Brandon Holbrook.
Rob Douglas, 37, son of Black Dog Tavern founder Capt. Robert Douglas, earned the title of fastest sailor in the world Monday by breaking the world kite surfing record with a speed of 49.84 knots.
Mr. Douglas accomplished the feat while competing in the Speed World Cup, in a small African town famous for strong winds. Mr. Douglas started wind surfing in 1987 and picked up kite surfing in 2002. He has hired a coach, Olympic medalist wind surfer Mike Gebhardt, to help him train.
With tick-borne diseases at epidemic levels on the Vineyard and the cause of growing concern as a public health threat here, the national Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has launched a controlled study of Lyme disease and tularemia in the Island Wampanoag population.
The study is phase one in a three-year environmental health program for the tribe, made possible by a $360,000 grant from the CDC, based in Atlanta, Ga.
A moratorium on the taking of river herring, instituted three years ago because of dwindling stocks, appears set to be extended for another three years.
A decision will not be announced until next Friday, but a public hearing attended by Vineyard fishermen last week made it clear the fishery was still far from recovered.
Paul Diodati, the director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, said there had been some improvement in stocks, but populations were still low.