Updated: Bring Back Fishing Petitioner Says

Michael Bourne of Marblehead thinks there are ways to reduce crowding on public docks and floats in town other than the fishing ban enacted Aug. 5 by the local Harbors and Water Board.

To that end he has created a Facebook group, Bring Back Fishing to Marblehead Docks and Floats, and started a petition asking the board's chairman, Gary Gregory, to bring back fishing.

"My main problem is the way it was handled," said Bourne, speaking of the ban.

He said one solution might be placing a limit on the number of people who can fish? Or limit the hours they can fish?

The Marblehead High graduate, Class of '91, is concerned about perceptions people have of Marblehead in the wake of the ban.

A clear majority of people who fished for squid on the L-shaped Commercial Street docks prior to the ban were of Cambodian descent, people who do not live in Marblehead.

"I am concerned about how it looks and how the Cambodian people feel," he said.

Bourne does not think the action was racially motivated; he does think it was about crowd control.

Harbors and Water Board member Jay Michaud said the action taken Aug. 5, was basically related to overcrowding and safety.

There were so many people on the docks that they were listing.
Even the gangway was weighed down with people, a structure that wasn't made for fishermen, he said.

The board plans to review the ban when it meets on Sept. 9, he said.

He said the action on Aug. 5, was not taken to exclude outsiders. People who are not from Marblehead have traditionally used the town's facilities, he said.

What the ban did was buy the town time, give it breathing room to avoid a possible tragedy, he said. Whole families including very young children were among 75 to 100 people that crowded the docks at times, he said.

What if something happened and a child was injured or worse after falling in the water, he said.

When the board met on Aug. 5, they also heard from boat owners who said the crowds were making it hard for them to access their boats along the docks, he said.

Also, they said the multitude of caught squid were squirting ink all over the area.

Harbormaster Webb Russell said the fishing ban went into effect due to severe overcrowding and major health and safety concerns, as well as trash in the area and damage to the new docks from squid slime and ink.

Michaud, a commercial fisherman, sees the squid as the root of the problem, their unusual abundance in the harbor spreading by word of mouth and attracting the fishermen.

"The (real) culprit here is the squid," he said. "They showed up in massive numbers and no one expected it."

Editor's note: We discovered a voicemail from the harbormaster after the fact and have now added Webb Russell's comments to the story an an update.