As Oak Bluffs looks at implementing a new security camera policy, ongoing tensions between summertime swimmers and those who want to fish in peace at the town’s fishing pier — one of the only wheelchair-accessible docks on the Island — have raised questions of whether increased surveillance should be brought to the area.
Doug Asselin, longtime fisherman and employee of Dick’s Bait and Tackle in Oak Bluffs, said conflict between people jumping off the fishing pier and anglers has been present since construction was first finished in 2014. The Oak Bluffs fishing pier, located next to the ferry dock, opened that year after the $1.2 million construction project was funded through saltwater fishing license fees. Every year around July and into August, dozens of adults, teens, and young kids jump off the dock.
“Originally, when the dock was first built, there was signage all down the dock,” Asselin said. “On the pylons, red-and-white signs: No diving, no swimming. That doesn’t mean you can’t swim around the pier from the beach, but they didn’t want people jumping.”
In previous years, especially after the first two seasons, the signs were torn off the sides of the pier at one point, Asselin said.
The fishermen have had no problems with any other visitors to the dock, but there have been disputes when Asselin and other fishermen try to explain what the purpose of the Oak Bluffs fishing pier is to two to three dozen kids, teenagers, and young adults, according to complaint letters sent to the Oak Bluffs Select Board from various residents and fishermen, detailing concerns about enforcement, verbal abuse from people jumping off the pier, and damage done to the pier.
One response by Oak Bluff’s town administrator at the time, Deborah Potter, detailed that many of the concerns raised have been present since the pier was first constructed.
Dick’s Bait and Tackle donates a large circular fishing net to the Oak Bluffs fishing pier every year, which people jumping off the pier sometimes swing on and snap. Asselin has had to replace it every year; it costs around $80.
“We have had no help from anyone,” Asselin said. “Originally, we were calling the state and letting them know what was going on, because all these arguments started to escalate.”
The Oak Bluffs fishing pier is under a land management agreement between the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game, Office of Fishing and Boating Access (OFBA), and the town of Oak Bluffs. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) is a partner to the agreement for construction of the fishing pier, according to Julia Hopkins, DMF communications director.
Oak Bluffs is the managing authority of the fishing pier, including policing responsibilities. However, the OFBA and DMF have worked collaboratively with town officials and local police to post more recent “no jumping” signage. There are even potential plans to install live-stream cameras to address concerns about people jumping off the pier.
According to Oak Bluffs Police Lt. Nicholas Curelli, Oak Bluffs has not installed cameras at the fishing pier because they are in the early stages of policy development. A camera policy is under consideration by the town’s select board following serious incidents downtown. In one incident, a fight outside the Ritz Café left a man paralyzed from the waist down.
Trying to enforce the rules against jumping off the Oak Bluffs fishing pier is extremely difficult, and is outside the mission of the police department, Lt. Curelli said. The police reform of 2020 eliminated the use of special summer officers, with the Oak Bluffs Police Department relying on community service officers in their place.
The Oak Bluffs Police Department has four community service officers working in addition to the police force, Lt. Curelli said. The primary job of a community service officer is writing traffic tickets, with part of the community officers patrolling the Oak Bluffs fishing pier, but the Oak Bluffs Police don’t have enough personnel to have someone be there all day.
“The issue is that there needs to be adequate signage and prevention methods,” Curelli said. “Prevention is what’s key to solving this problem, and not writing tickets.”
No young kid or teenager is going to have a proper ID on them when they go to jump off the pier, Curelli said.
