What’s big and gray and has been recently spotted on Martha’s Vineyard?

The Amity Gazette.

With tourists streaming onto the Island this week for Jawsfest, the Vineyard Gazette today printed a limited number of its Aug. 7th issue under the masthead of its fictional alter ego from the blockbuster summer movie Jaws.

The Vineyard Gazette is being distributed free across the Island this week as part of an annual effort to encourage new subscribers. The full issue is also available for free online. For a limited time offer, you can subscribe — or renew your subscription — for two years, and get your choice of two new books about the Vineyard, To the Harbor Light: Lighthouses of Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Cape Cod or Bountiful: A History of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society and Livestock Show and Fair.

Dukes County Veterans Agent Jo Ann Murphy is cautioning Vineyarders to be wary of telephone solicitations to raise money for veterans.

Ms. Murphy said that she’s heard from a few people who have received the phone calls, but she has not been contacted about any fund-raising endeavors that will go to Island veterans. “I haven’t heard anything,” she said. “Well, who are these people?”

“There are a lot of scams out there,” Ms. Murphy said. “I would just be leery of it.”

Go to a party, eat great food, hang with neighbors and do good at the same time. It is, as the saying goes, a no-brainer. Or better known as the Chilmark Firemen’s Association Back Yard Bash.

The bash, an annual event to raise money for the all-volunteer town fire department, takes place Wednesday, August 1, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Chilmark Community Center field.

Sengekontacket Pond has been closed to shellfishing through Friday, August 3 due to recent heavy rainfall. The pond will reopen to shellfishing on Friday at 7 a.m.

The pond closure is marked by red flags flying by the Big and Little Bridges.

The closures do not apply to boaters or swimmers.

Celebrated author Joyce Carol Oates is coming to the Vineyard to headline the Vineyard Playhouse's next Monday Night Special on July 30.

The Monday night events, held each week at 7 p.m. at the Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven, introduce works-in-progress and give the audience the opportunity to talk with the artists involved, perhaps even giving advice.

The Vineyard House, the Island's only sober housing facility, will host its annual Water Tasting by the Sea fundraiser on Thursday, July 26 at the Boch family estate on Katama Bay from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Gourmet water varieties, such as Nestle's blood orange and grapefruit sparkling beverages, as well as L. Knife and Son’s Saratoga Spring water, will be available for sipping. The fundraiser also features music by Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish, food by Tea Lane Caterers and a silent auction.

Want to mingle with the cast of The Wire while showing your support for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign? On August 15, longtime Obama supporters and Island residents Judy and Ron Davenport will host a fundraiser at their home featuring the cast of the hit HBO show. The president is not expected to attend.

The Vineyard Youth Tennis program, which provides free tennis lessons and court time at its Oak Bluffs facility, is celebrating its 10th anniversary on Saturday, July 21 with a professional tennis exhibition, tennis games and prizes, a kids' carnival with clowns, as well as magicians and face painting. Festivities begin at 9:30 a.m. For more information, call 508-693-7762.

Volunteers at this year’s Christmas Bird Count spotted 119 species, according to Gazette bird columnist Susan Whiting, a cocompiler of the annual event on the Island. Though the species count was similar to recent years, the number of individual birds spotted, 21,730, was lower than in most counts of late. In 2010, only 15,926 individual birds were counted, due to few participant, but in 2009 32,114 individual birds were recorded. In 2008, that number was nearly 83,000.