CHATHAM – A video taken by a group of tuna fishermen about a dozen miles east of Chatham shows a pod of orcas swimming alongside the boat. It's the second sighting of a killer whale off the town's coast this summer. The video was shot by Alex Wyckoff aboard the Fish Box out of Pleasant Bay on Tuesday. At least four orcas, females and juveniles, can be seen in the waters around the boat and swam along the boat ...

CHATHAM – A video taken by a group of tuna fishermen about a dozen miles east of Chatham shows a pod of orcas swimming alongside the boat. It's the second sighting of a killer whale off the town's coast this summer. The video was shot by Alex Wyckoff aboard the Fish Box out of Pleasant Bay on Tuesday. At least four orcas, females and juveniles, can be seen in the waters around the boat and swam along the boat ...

CHATHAM — In the faded photographs on the walls and on the plaques listing names of past members and commanders, the Brown-James-Buck VFW Post holds history. “We're stewards,” Operations Manager Carl Rostek said. “We refuse to let this place go under.” But the building on George Ryder Road isn't a museum. For nearly 60 years, it's been a refuge for local veterans as well as an important community resou...

CHATHAM – Before moving any further with a proposed agreement, Chatham officials want assurances that both the town and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will have equal responsibility for management of the waters west of the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Language in a draft memorandum of understanding proposed by the Fish and Wildlife Service commits both parties to working “cooperatively” to protect the res...

CHATHAM — They're among the first seasonal residents to arrive each year, and they're a fixture on the local waterfront until fall arrives. Ospreys are a familiar, often beloved part of the local landscape. So when utility crews removed an osprey nest from a utility pole off Morris Island Road earlier this month, it left a number of neighborhood residents concerned and angry. In an email copied to The Chroni...

CHATHAM – Seth Rolbein, a long-time Cape journalist and former senior advisor to Cape and Islands Senator Dan Wolf, was named director of the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust last week. Rolbein will work with the trust's current director, Paul Parker, through the end of the year, when Parker will head up a new organization that will seek to bring the trust's model of community ownership and management of fishing quota...

CHATHAM – Despite the theft of four of the 43 sharks in the park – one of which has yet to be recovered – an auction of the whimsical sculptures exceeded last year's total by nearly $8,000. The online auction, which ended last Friday, earned $50,079, half of which goes to the sponsor, the Chatham Merchants Association, and half to the individual artists whose work attracted thousands to the downtown display ov...

CHATHAM – Planned improvements at Old Mill Boatyard have been scaled back after bids for the work came in above the available funding for the project. The most significant element of the work – replacement of the bulkhead at the town-owned Stage Harbor facility – remain in new bid documents issued last week. Other items have been removed and a few included as alternatives which could be added into the project ...

William Shakespeare had a connection to Chatham. Sort of. That’s according to Bernard Cornwell of Chatham, the internationally best-selling author of nearly 60 novels, including the televised Sharpe series and the recent Lost Kingdom series. Cornwell, 72, spoke for 60 minutes last Sunday in the Eldredge Public Library during the annual meeting of the Chatham Historical Society. His topic was “Shakespeare’s ...

CHATHAM – Petite quahogs are off the menu, at least in Massachusetts. The state marine fisheries advisory commission has removed quahogs from a draft regulation that proposed allowing the in-state sale of undersized farm-raised oysters, surf clams and quahogs. Removing so-called “petite” or “gem” quahogs from the proposal was endorsed by Division of Marine Fisheries Director David Pierce and came at the strong...

WEST CHATHAM — Having just raised two of the walls for his new Habitat home, elbow to elbow with volunteers he'd only just met, Jean-Claude Butter said there aren't many words to describe the feeling. “It's a great experience, like seeing the birth of your child,” he said. Butter, his wife and three children came to Chatham from Haiti in 2012 and have been living in rented quarters. The prospect of living in...