US embassy cable - 04HALIFAX188

UNCLAS HALIFAX 000188 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAN 
USDOC FOR NOAA AND NMFS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIS, PBTS, PREL, ETRD, PHSA, CA 
SUBJECT: U.S./CANADA SOVEREIGNTY DISPUTE:  UPDATE ON MACHIAS SEAL 
ISLAND LOBSTER FISHERY 
 
1.  SUMMARY:  Despite an ongoing sovereignty dispute, Maine and 
New Brunswick fishermen are managing to fish side by side in 
waters off Machias Seal Island without any major incidents to 
date.  However, Canadian authorities remain frustrated by the 
inability of local groups to conclude a complementary management 
regime for the area.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  A spokesperson for the Canadian Department of Fisheries and 
Oceans (DFO) has told us that there have been no major incidents 
to date between U.S. and Canadian fishermen who are fishing in 
the waters off Machias Seal Island in the Gulf of Maine.  In 
recent years, there have been tensions between lobster fishermen 
from New Brunswick and their Maine counterparts over fishing 
seasons and conflicts over gear placement.  The United States 
and Canada have an ongoing sovereignty dispute involving the 
Island and the surrounding waters, but nonetheless fishermen 
from both countries had shared the area for decades in an 
informal and amicable arrangement.  Maine fishermen historically 
fished the area during the summer months and the New Brunswick 
fishermen from mid-November to the spring.  However, in recent 
years, the New Brunswick fishermen claimed that their Maine 
counterparts were fishing throughout the whole year and were 
posing a serious threat to the lobster stocks. 
 
3.  In response to these assertions, DFO began pressuring the 
New Brunswick fishermen to work out complementary management 
measures with their Maine counterparts as a way to curtail 
growing tensions between both groups and to ensure long term 
conservation of the stocks.  However, by 2002 there had been 
little success at the discussion table.  That prompted federal 
officials to announce the establishment of a special summer 
fishery for the New Brunswick fishermen as a way of highlighting 
the Canadian government's sovereignty case and to bring pressure 
on both sides to start discussions.  With no progress in 2003 
either, Ottawa again opened a special season for that summer and 
repeated the move again this year.  This year's special season 
runs from July 1 to October 29 with 29 license holders 
participating in the fishery. 
 
4.  Comment:  Our DFO contact is clearly frustrated by the two 
groups' inability to reach a complementary agreement on issues 
such as access, management and enforcement which our contact 
believes could be devised regardless of the sovereignty case. 
However, with neither side apparently willing to discuss these 
issues, it appears that this summer's season will end the same 
as the last two -- with no agreement.  END COMMENT. 
 
HILL