MACHIASPORT, Maine — A feud that apparently has been simmering for at least a year between fishing families in the Machiasport area erupted Sunday evening, resulting in one lobsterman being arrested on an assault charge and another being charged with criminal mischief.
“This [latest incident] appears to be between these two individuals, but at its heart, it is a fishing dispute,” Officer Jason Leavitt of the Maine Marine Patrol said Monday.
Leavitt said the mood in Machiasport has been “very heated” and that the “situation has a lot of potential for more violence.”
There already have been a half-dozen protection from harassment orders placed in the fishing community, he said, and in the past year Leavitt has handled complaints that more than 600 lobster traps have been cut loose at sea. He said the ramming of a fishing vessel last year by another boat remains under investigation.
In the latest incident, police converged at about 6 p.m. Sunday on the pier at BBS Lobster Co. where John Wood, 43, and Jessie Moody, 21, both of Machiasport, allegedly were fighting.
Washington County Deputy Brandon Parker said both men are lobster fishermen with a history of disputes.
Moody was arrested and charged with assaulting Wood with a 4-foot lobster trap runner, and Wood was charged with criminal mischief after he allegedly broke out the windows in Moody’s pickup truck.
Parker said the situation escalated when someone reported to police that a handgun was involved and family members and others began arriving at the pier.
No one needed medical attention, Parker said.
Leavitt, who patrols the Machiasport fishing grounds, said that the area has been the site of many com-plaints from lobstermen in the past year.
Sgt. Jay Carroll of DMR agreed that Sunday night’s fight was not an isolated incident.
“There certainly have been some issues there between the fishermen,” he said. “It goes on onshore as well as on the water.”
“Kennebec Bay has a lot of problems,” Leavitt said. “There are dozens of lobstermen competing in a small area. You have a lot of fishermen, a lot of lobsters, a lot of gear, and tempers can flare quickly and turn to trouble.”
Late Monday, John Wood confirmed that the altercations and harassment have been over lobster territory.
He said other fishermen, including the Moodys, have refused to allow him to fish and that he has been fishing since 1972 out of Machiasport.
“These problems began in 1980,” he said.
Wood, who operates Superior Shellfish in Bucks Harbor, said other fishermen have tried to capsize his son’s boat and have come close to his boat in a harassing manner as many as six times in one day.
“We are working diligently with the Maine State Police, the Washington County Sheriff’s Department and the Maine Marine Patrol to try to stop this situation from escalating,” he said. Wood said he has 72 pages of complaints filed against the other fishermen.
Wood said that on Sunday evening, he had backed his pickup truck and trailer onto the pier to unload traps into his boat.
“Jessie Moody blocked me in with his truck and said he was there to help me unload. He then attacked me with a four-foot piece of wood. He assaulted me,” Wood said. He said he has injuries to his cheek and his upper arm.
Wood said he expects the violence to increase. “This has escalated from the water to the land and I’m afraid it is only going to get worse,” he said.
Dennis Moody is a lifelong lobsterman in Machiasport and Jessie Moody’s father.
“From the outside, it may look like a turf war,” he said Monday, “but really it is just problems with one person.”
Dennis Moody said the rest of the area’s fishermen get along quite well. He said there have been previous assaults and boat damage attributed to one fisherman but that no one has held him accountable.
Moody said Sunday’s fight began when Jessie Moody confronted Wood about a cut buoy.
“I’m a fisherman, not a lawyer,” Dennis Moody said. “We don’t want to stand around defending ourselves. We just want to fish.”