One week ago on Thursday, Tisbury town administrator Jay Grande announced that all of Tashmoo Pond was closed to shellfishing until further notice while local, state, and Coast Guard officials worked to discover the source and nature of a sheen found on the surface of the water.
Mr. Grande said the sheen appeared whenever the bottom was disturbed, and did not appear to be coming from a single source, for example a buried tank. He said the gasoline-like substance, which authorities have still not positively identified, bubbled up when a shovel was put into the pond bottom in the area north of the Lake Street boat landing.
The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) ordered the salt pond closed to shellfishing until further notice. On Wednesday, representatives of the Department of Environmental Protection conducted an inspection, and DMF cleared the pond to reopen to shellfishing Thursday in time for the long holiday weekend, Tisbury shellfish constable Danielle Ewart told The Times.
