Martha's Vineyard Summer Traffic

The Vineyard Gazette recently ran an online survey to solicit opinions about summer traffic. 2,200 residents and visitors responded. There weren't any surprises.

"The online survey, designed to gauge the impact of traffic on the island's quality of life, elicited a variety of reactions, but most agreed that surging summer traffic had negatively affected their enjoyment of Martha's Vineyard. As to what should be done, no clear consensus emerged."

For a hint of what's to come, the Steamship Authority continues to break traffic records and they're spending $80 million on more ferry slips and a new headquarters building in Woods Hole. And the Obamas just bought a home on Edgartown Great Pond for $15 million. 

Jimmy Cagney said it best more than 40 years ago in a telegram to Senator Ted Kennedy.

Oak Bluffs Fireworks

The annual August fireworks in Oak Bluffs Friday night were scintillating.

My iPhone tried to capture it below but not nearly as well as the second and third photographs by Vineyard Gazette photographer Mark Alan Lovewell.

Vineyard Gazette ~ Mark Alan Lovewell

Vineyard Gazette ~ Mark Alan Lovewell

Cape Cod - More Seals Mean More Great White Sharks

According to The Wall Street Journal's article, Cape Cod's New Normal - Sharks are Everywhere, great white sharks are as much a way of life now as the protected and flourishing grey seal population in Cape and island waters that's estimated at more than 50,000.

"Many people grew up or summered in the Cape without fear, lulled by an artificial environment cleansed of seals and sharks because of human hunting. Until last year, great whites hadn't killed someone off the Massachusets coast since 1936. The federal government passed a law protecting ocean mammals in 1972, bolstering a state halt on bounty hunting, and the seal population has flourished."

Another consequence of all the seals is far fewer fish for recreational and commercial fisherman.

Wayne Davis ~ Ocean Aerials

Wayne Davis ~ Ocean Aerials

"Sober Curious"

Fad, trend, or real change?

Beach Reading ~ Analog or Digital?

Felipe Galindo Gomez Feggo ~ The New Yorker