Why are there virtually no codfish to be found in the waters off Cape Cod? Depending on who you ask, it's because of the eating habits of the thousands of gray seals now living in local waters, or it's because of decades of chronic overfishing plus ecological changes, like warming oceans. Peter Trull, Pleasant Bay Community Boating Curriculum Developer and Naturalist, comes down squarely on the latter cause. H...

HARWICH — Selectmen threw their support behind a $350,000 Lower County Road improvement project Monday night. Town Engineer Griffin Ryder projected the work should provide five to seven years of additional life for the road surface. The town has been wrestling with how to address poor road surface conditions along Lower County Road since voters in the annual town meeting turned down a request for $4.5 million ...

HARWICH — A major waterfront improvement project is being proposed for the Wychmere Beach Club, including the reconstruction of existing facilities and the addition of a new restaurant, small restroom, retail building and a pavilion extension. Wychmere Harbor Real Estate filed an application with the board of appeals to alter the existing special permit or to issue a new special permit for the waterfront prope...

HARWICH — The third annual Cape Verdean Festival will take place Saturday at Brooks Park, providing attendees the opportunity to experience authentic Cape Verdean food, art and “folklorico.” The festival celebrates Cape Verdean heritage and culture and recognizes the instrumental role its people have played in Harwich and across the Cape. Last year, Selectman Ed McManus noted the early contributions to fishing...

It's the season of backyard cookouts, beach picnics and fried seafood, but food poses a much more serious challenge for many people on Cape Cod in the summertime. Many of the seasonal workers who drive the local economy and provide the services that we all need during the summer months turn to the Family Pantry of Cape Cod to help put food on the table. Like many year-round retail and service workers on the Ca...

HARWICH — The proponents of a controversial retail development project proposed in West Harwich withdrew Tuesday evening as the planning board was poised to vote on a limited discretionary referral to the Cape Cod Commission. Chad Brubaker of Liscotti Development has been the major proponent of the 7,489-square-foot retail outlet proposed along Route 28. He read a letter at the start of Tuesday evening’s sessi...

Just before Thanksgiving in 2004, The Cape Cod Chronicle forged a partnership with the Family Pantry of Cape Cod. For years, we’d been reporting on the good work of the Family Pantry, the people who were making it happen, and the steadily increasing need. We called the campaign “ Helping Neighbors .” “As a small business, we knew we couldn’t just make a $100,000 donation on our own,” Publisher Henry Hyora said...

HARWICH — The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has issued public health advisories recommending fish caught in two Harwich ponds not be eaten due to high levels of mercury. The advisory was issued on July 3 and pinpoints a number of ponds across the commonwealth where fish have been contaminated by mercury. According to the advisory, children under 12, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and women of chi...

HARWICH PORT – Eight-year-old Florence Carlson is walking in the footsteps of legends this week. Literally. From July 10 to July 20, Carlson will take the stage as a young Czech girl in the musical “Once” at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis. Nicknamed the “birthplace of the stars,” the Cape Playhouse has attracted famous actors to its stage since it opened its doors in 1927. Julie Andrews, Bernadette Peters, Olymp...

HARWICH — Harwich Center will be aglow with light on Friday night as residents come together for a vigil protesting conditions faced by refugees, one of many Lights for Liberty rallies planned across Cape Cod and around the nation. “This year images of children suffering in U.S. detention camps (mostly privately run and thus not subject to review) have outraged us all and we are turning our outrage into action...

SOUTH HARWICH — If he had one wish, 11-year-old Sawyer Nicholson of East Harwich wouldn’t go back in time and erase the accident that left him with severe burns on his feet. His real wish is that you listen to his story and avoid the pain he had to endure. Sawyer was 10 last September when he and his family gathered at the end of Red River Beach to celebrate his grandfather’s 85 th birthday. It was a grand ...

HARWICH — It has been 175 years since the Man with the Branded Hand became a central character in the abolitionist movement on Cape Cod. Harwich resident Captain Jonathan Walker suffered the pain of a branding iron bearing the letters “SS” after been imprisoned under Territory of Florida law as a “slave stealer.” The abolitionist movement had momentum locally in those days, as was well documented with the foun...