Don’t make striped bass a game fish. That was the message delivered last week by a group of Vineyard commercial bass fishermen who traveled to the state house in Boston to object to legislation that would do just that. The fishermen, most of them members of the Dukes County/Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Association, spoke out with one voice against House Bill 796.

More than 100 fishermen attended the hearing hosted by the Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture on Jan. 14.

A state legislator’s effort to make striped bass a recreational fish only is dead for now. The state’s Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture has sent the proposal back for further study.

House Bill 796, filed by Falmouth representative Matthew C. Patrick, would have closed striped bass fishing to all but recreational fishermen. The bill was filed a year ago.

Summer shellfishermen will have access to Sengekontacket Pond for the first time in several years, so long as there isn’t a big rainstorm.

The State Division of Marine Fisheries has lifted the pond from a routine seasonal closure.

Sengekontacket Pond is overseen by the Edgartown and Oak Bluffs shellfish departments under the watchful eye of the state.

Beginning this year, under a new federal law, recreational saltwater fishermen are required either to have a saltwater license or to have registered with their state. In Massachusetts, where a law requiring a license will take effect next year, fishermen are supposed to register.

But very few have.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

There is another fishing boat in Menemsha. The blue, 55-foot offshore lobsterboat Retriever belongs to Capt. Alec Gale and will be used by him to transport fish from Menemsha to the mainland. Retriever replaces his previous workboat, the Jane Lee, a Bruno Stillman 55.

More than 50 fishermen participated in the first Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass Shootout, a one-day, mostly boat fishing tournament, on Saturday, June 5. The Edgartown-based fishing contest owes its roots to the former annual Pink Squid Yacht Club spring fishing tournament and was taken over by those at Larry’s Tackle Shop.

Worried Vineyard lobstermen are breathing a little easier this week following a meeting held last week with fisheries regulators in Rhode Island, where a proposed five-year moratorium on lobster fishing was placed on the shelf — at least for now.

Brian (Chip) Vanderhoop, 49, saved the livelihoods of a lot of fishermen as the U.S. Coast Guard boathouse burned. The Aquinnah harbor master and shellfish constable would prefer little notice; it is just out of character for him to talk much about himself or to pose for a photograph. Of his five Vanderhoop siblings, he is the quiet one.

By PETER BRANNEN

As the charred remains of the drive-on dock at Menemsha stand as a reminder of last Monday’s fire, the unselfish actions of a few individuals during the frenzied confusion of the blaze have come into sharp relief.

One such individual is Menemsha bass fisherman Casey Elliston, who salvaged a number of boats from the inferno as flames raced down the ill-fated pier. For his part, Mr. Elliston refuses to acknowledge that he did anything special the day Menemsha burned.

The current in the Edgartown harbor has changed again.

It has been three years since the Norton Point opening connected Katama Bay to the sea, and the water movement through the harbor has gained another measure of unpredictability: currents running through Edgartown harbor are far greater than tidal.

Plus, the three years of increased current has changed the way boaters use the harbor and the way bathers use the beaches.