According to Kelly, the Grey Zone was colloquially known to Mainers as the “gravy zone,” given how lobstermen were able to clean up in the absence of any Canadians. Previously, Maine lobstermen had the area to themselves in the summer, as their Canadian counterparts traditionally halted their fishing season from the end of June until October. “In some ways, I think that’s when the problem started to get more serious,” Kelly said. In 2002, Canada’s fisheries department relaxed regulations to allow its Grand Manan Island lobstermen to fish in the Grey Zone in the summer. The waters around Machias Seal Island, however, are another story. The two sides appeared to come to some mutual, if unspoken, agreement of coexistence when it came to the island itself. Foreign Service, called such minor squabbles “back-burner stuff” that didn’t occupy much of their time at the embassy. Kelly, who was posted twice in Canada near the end of his 28-year career with the U.S. The popular tours run $115 to $150 per person and sell out months in advance. Tour boats taking birdwatchers to see the puffin colony continue to operate out of both Maine and Grand Manan Island, which is part of New Brunswick and, at its closest point, less than 12 miles away from Machias Seal Island. “ would have to walk past about 100 of these things.” ![]() “I took great pleasure in that,” Diamond told the Post. Tony Diamond, a University of New Brunswick biology professor who frequented Machias Seal Island to see the puffins, told the National Post in 2012 that he used to counter Norton’s annual Independence Day forays by marking tern nests with small, Canadian flags. Even though the lighthouse is now automated, the Canadian government continues to keep lighthouse keepers stationed there “for sovereignty purposes.” They’ve also put up a warning sign displaying the county’s name and maple leaf flag.īarna Norton with his boat, “Chief,” which was registered to Machias Seal Island, USA, in 1996 The then-British colony constructed a lighthouse on the island in 1832 and made sure to staff it regularly with Canadian keepers. However, the treaty exempted islands that had been part of Nova Scotia, and Canadians say Machias Seal Island was included in a 1621 land grant deeding the province to Sir William Alexander - though the grant’s wording is imprecise.Īnyway, the Canadians asserted their claim to the small, treeless, puffin-inhabited patch of rocks. Machias Seal Island is less than 10 miles from what is now the town of Cutler, Maine. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the war, gave the 13 independent colonies rule over all islands within 20 leagues, or roughly 70 miles, of the American shore. “Border disputes do not go away they fester,” Kelly wrote in a 2002 New York Times op-ed.Īnd this dispute has been festering since the Revolutionary War. ![]() ![]() ‘He supposedly took them on single-handedly’ Once dubbed the “ Coldest War,” the quiet dispute over the tiny, meadow-topped island and its surrounding waters has been simmering for more than two centuries, consisting of puffins, lobster, and a few legendarily provincial Mainers. It was likely the first time many Americans had even heard of Machias Seal Island, if the story broke through at all. Border Patrol agents were stopping Canadian fishermen in the area, causing a modest uproar in the Great White North. The conflict was recently cast into international focus after reports that U.S.
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