CUTLER, Maine — December 30, 2012 — A nautical “no man’s land” off the coast of Washington County sees Down East and Canadian lobstermen pulling traps side-by-side in waters that have been the focus of an on-again, off-again territorial dispute that dates to 1621.
Nearly 70 square miles of the Gulf of Maine that surround the treeless, 20-acre Machias Seal Island are claimed by both the U.S. and Canada. The so-called “gray zone” encompasses waters where lobster fishermen from both countries set traps, despite the fact that Maine and Atlantic Canada lobstering regulations differ significantly.
The territorial dispute is a contemporary artifact of the treaty that resolved the Revolutionary War. The 1783 Treaty of Paris gave possession of islands within 70 miles of America’s shoreline to the original 13 colonies. As Machias Seal Island is 10 miles southeast of what is now the Washington County community of Cutler, the area was presumed to be within the territorial boundaries of the United States.
The same treaty excluded any island that was once part of Nova Scotia, as defined by a 1621 British land grant that created the province, which was later divided to create New Brunswick. Machias Seal Island is located 12 miles southwest of New Brunswick’s Grand Manan Island, and the Canadian government established a lighthouse there in 1832 as a means of staking its territorial claim to the disputed area. That lighthouse still exists, with two keepers being ferried by helicopter from the Canadian mainland every 28 days. It’s the only Canadian lighthouse that hasn’t been automated.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News