Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

It’s not July, but it seems like July. It used to be that some things that happen only began to happen in mid-summer, but not this year, no sir. Things are happening now. We can remember when the masses were blooming in the seventh month of the year, while this year, in the fifth month, they are congregating. From the Skiff avenue end of Lagoon Pond they have arrived — massive influxes of what appear to be brown clouds of death. The algae blooms are here.

These mysterious invasions — at least to us — start out as innocuous green things that look like submerged clouds of bright green threads. It is only when they die that they become the smother brothers stink bombs of the pond. What is it with this stuff? Does anybody know?

While we are not happy about this, it appears that we are in the minority, as no entity, town, state or country seems to care. Can’t something be done about this other than discuss long-term solutions — or worse — avoidance of solutions? Given the improbability of a solution coming any time in the near future can we not in the meantime get rid of the algae somehow while we arrive at a way to reduce nitrogen loading in the pond?

Frank and Vasha Brunelle

Vineyard Haven