Dark green and gray, slick with algae, pocked with parasitic scars and polychaete worm tunnels, wild oysters are survivors, fighting everything the pond's brackish waters throw at them.
MVCyano, a coalition of local boards of health and the Great Pond Foundation, has issued “red-grade” cyanobacteria bloom advisories in Chilmark Pond, Tisbury Great Pond, James Pond and a pond at Mink Meadows.
The West Tisbury board of health issued a cyanobacteria bloom advisory for Tiah’s Cove in Tisbury Great Pond Wednesday, recommending that people avoid any contact with the water.
More than half the nitrogen polluting Great Ponds along the south shore is coming from wastewater, a newly released report has found.
Torrents of rain from recent storms have caused Vineyard Great Ponds to rise to historic levels, threatening shellfish and surrounding homes.
It’s been bad news for shellfishing on Martha’s Vineyard and beyond in recent days, from a state-ordered closure to the discovery last week of a heavy algae bloom in the Tisbury Great Pond.