Vance Bunker, 68, fired a 22 caliber handgun at Young, and he has been banned from returning to the island until further notice by legal authorities. This is a common condition of release. However, it ordinarily extends to only a street or neighborhood. Bunker has been charged with elevated aggravated assault. The class B offense is considered a very serious charge. As Dean and Miller approached the wharf they heard people arguing and yelling. As Dean came up the wharf ladder and onto the wharf he saw Jananne Miller, Vance Bunker’s daughter, pointing a shotgun at fishermen on the wharf. Dean drew his handgun and ordered her to drop the shotgun. As she did a shot was heard from the other side of a stack of lobster traps on the wharf. When Dean went to investigate he saw Bunker, and also saw that Young had been shot. He administered first aid, called for help, and contained the situation. Marine Resources Commissioner George Lapointe closed the Matinicus lobster fishery for two weeks in response to the Monday morning shooting. Hussey challenged the DMR decision because there was no precedent for closing a fishery on the grounds the DMR cited. There were two grounds the DMR used for closing the fishery. The first was gear conflict. But, gear conflict is about the commissioner’s right to deal with problems regarding fixed gear, etc. The second was over public health or safety. But, said Hussey, “this did not apply because there was no broad public health threat,” as there might be in the case of something like a red tide. A Marine Patrol officer, Major John Fetterman, said that in his 32 years on the job he has never seen things get so violently out of control. He cited disputes among lobstermen for a wide range of reasons from girlfriends to bottom access. Of Vance Bunker he said, “I never thought I would be hauling Vance off Matinicus.” Territorial management has long led to varied levels of confrontation. Fishermen blamed the personalities involved and not the local management process for the result of the conflict. Critics of the closure said this event was categorically different from past turf wars. The reasons cited were the fact that it took place on land and it resulted in a near fatality. Hussey went to court seeking an injunction to block the DMR’s order to close the fishery. The commissioner met with fishermen and by the time a settlement was reached there was a 3-day closure of the fishery. This was, said Hussey, a criminal issue, not a public health issue. What’s more this incident did not take place on the water, it was not directly over territory. It took place on land, not on boats. The shooting was very different from a fishing-based dispute on the water, he said. Hussey complained that the media had linked the shooting to fishing issues. He said people see violence happening for many reasons and questioned the media’s focus on the motivation in this case. In the case of domestic violence, he said, the focus is not on the motivation, but on the act. “Punishing the entire fishery presumes too much. Focusing on this as a fishing issue led the Marine Patrol to crack down on other fishermen who had nothing to do with the incident," said Hussey. The Marine Patrol was quoted as saying they wanted to send a message. However, many people said they didn’t want to hear that message since they respect other fishermen’s gear and the fishing rules. Fishermen at Matinicus thought the commissioner responded collectively in meting out punishment. But, said Hussey, the lobster business is effectively the only business on Matinicus. There is very little tourism and virtually no other business there. “It is what keeps the lights on at the school,” he said. The people here are very dependent on fishing. With hauling out and re-baiting it would have amounted to three weeks of down time. The backdrop to this has been the collapse of lobster prices last year in sync with the banking collapse. That combination threatened a wave of boat and home foreclosures for fishermen. Some did lose both, however, and the banks had all they could handle with repossessed homes. They just didn’t want fishing boats when the fishing industry was on the ropes. The Lobster Sustainability Task Force, which Governor Baldacci established last year in response to the lobster industry’s financial crisis, has seen the recommendations of the market research company hired to study long term marketing plans, but as of the third week of July, the Task Force’s conclusions have not been released. The problem for lobstermen is far more complicated than a season with low boat prices for their product. Most lobstermen can quickly list a handful of equally perplexing problems that have been dogging them in recent years. Among the most often cited are the costs of changing miles of groundline rope to comply with new whale entanglement regulations; the pending prospect that the number of vertical lines, the lines that run from the traps to the buoys on the surface, will be cut back under the same whale regulations; the pressure from fishermen forced out of other fisheries entering the lobster fishery; the inevitable rise in the cost of fuel; the rising cost of bait; the failure of Maine to retain processors that can buy the more delicate and difficult to ship summer shedders, and the disappearance of the alternate groundfish, scallop and shrimp fisheries. Fishermen at Matinicus are hoping to find a way to have something good come out this low point in their history as an independent group living at the edge of the mainstream of mainland life. |
