Maine Debates Gray Zone Contested Waters Bill

Continued from March 2019 Homepage

Nova Scotia, Canada. The matter of which nation owns the gray zone has been in dispute since the Revolutionary War. Both sides claim full ownership.

The Maine Marine Patrol issued a summons to Cates for hauling during off hours and as a direct result, a new bill addressing the hours of American lobstermen’s access to the gray zone is moving through Maine’s state legislature.

“An Act to Remove Nighttime Restrictions on Lobster Fishing in a Certain Area in the Bay of Fundy,” LD 618, would lift nighttime fishing restrictions in the contested territory between Labor Day and Memorial Day, when northern days are the shortest. Currently Maine fishermen may legally fish from slightly before sunrise to slightly after sunset.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Will Tuell (R-E. Machias) said his bill could give American lobstermen a more equal footing with their Canadian counterparts.

“The gray zone bill is an attempt to recognize that you have two different groups of fishermen, one American and one Canadian, fishing the same waters under different rules,” said Tuell. “Really, the bill centers around letting people fish all their traps at night time as the Canadians can do.”

The Canada / United States Disputed Zone...The Grey Area

A public hearing on the bill is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 26 in Augusta. The Maine Department of Marine Resources and prominent industry stakeholders are expected to reveal their positions on the bill at that time.

“The Canadians can fish all night long, all the traps, and we’re not allowed to,” said Cates, “The Canadians know that, and some of the people they’re sending over here, they’ve been hauling our traps, stealing our lobsters.”

Acquitted

Attorney Jeffrey Davidson said Cates was acquitted by a jury because state attorneys could not prove that Cates was in Maine waters when he was caught.

“The law says that Maine’s territorial jurisdiction extends three miles from the coast, up to the border with Canada. Federal waters extend 200 miles from the coast, up to the border with Canada,” said Davidson. “The question was, where is the border with Canada?”

For Davidson, the summons given to Cates but not nearby Canadian boats brings the state’s lack of true jurisdiction, and by extension ownership, into relief. Davidson said a photo taken of Cates on the morning of the incident shows a Canadian fishing vessel working only 200 yards away.

“Jurisdiction is a territorial application,” said Davidson. The law applies to all, or it applies to none.

“You can’t only [issue summons to us] and not give us protection against the Canadians that fish in the same area. You don’t get to have it both ways.” Maine marine patrol acknowledges that they have no jurisdiction over Canadian vessels in the gray zone.

The jury’s acquittal came as a relief to Cates but may be cold comfort to a fishery that already knows these waters are not entirely Maine’s, and it isn’t Maine that can solve that problem.

“Hopefully the legislature will listen to us this time and change it,” said Cates. “It would give us equal footing until something can be changed on the federal level.“

Lobster War

Filmmaker and Boston Globe journalist David Abel spent months studying the gray zone in 2017 when he filmed the feature documentary “Lobster War: The Fight Over the World’s Richest Fishing Grounds.”

Cates and other local fishermen and scientists are featured in the film, which is currently making its way through independent theaters and film festivals.

Abel said rising gray zone tensions can be attributed in part to climate change, because warming waters have driven lobsters north, making the contested waters into irresistibly lucrative fishing grounds.

“Our hope is that the takeaway for a lot of people is that climate change is not some distant abstract threat, but is having an effect on people’s lives today,” said Abel. “We’re seeing it play out every day now in the gray zone, as more and more fishermen race to catch what’s there.”

As for LD 618, Abel said he isn’t sure if it will help the conflict, or make it worse.

“It’s potentially a recipe for increased conflict,” said Abel. “The waters there are increasingly crowded. I would say that when you have such crowded waters with varying gear and varying regulations, it could potentially make things more dangerous.”

Cutler fisherman John Drouin is in favor of LD 618 because he fears tensions might worsen without it. Because the state’s marine patrol has limited jurisdiction in the gray zone, Drouin said fishermen want the freedom to look out for their own interests there.

“Without this ability to be out there and more or less guard ourselves, my fear would be somebody breaks, somebody snaps,” said Drouin, who serves as the chair of the Zone A Lobster Council and sits on the state’s Lobster Advisory Council.

“This bill is a very small band aid on a very large wound,” he said. “This isn’t just a matter of keeping an eye on our fishing gear. The wound is also because of conservation measures that are different.”

Drouin describes the frustration of pulling an oversize lobster out of his traps when he’s near Canadian gear. Maine regulations require lobsters of a certain size to be thrown back for broodstock, but Canada has different upper limits for legal lobster size.

“I throw it back overboard as I’m hauling traps, but if you look over there less than 50 feet from me, there’s Canadian gear,” said Drouin. “I throw that lobster back, it crawls into his trap, it comes over to Black Harbor, it comes down Route 1 and comes to a dealer here anyway. I’d rather have that lobster stay [in the water].”

Drouin acknowledges the Canadian fisheries use different types of conservation measures, such as prolonged summer closures in some areas, but says not knowing where the line lies between the two methods is causing tension, and the unusually close proximity of Canadian gear and vessels is causing tension, too.

“It’s difficult when I’m three-and-a-half miles from my harbor, and there’s Canadian gear there that’s taking lobsters that we’re trying to protect for the future of the fishery,” he said.

Drouin tells the story of another local lobsterman who once lost his thumb to an accident involving entangled American and Canadian gear.

“At some point in time, something is going to happen to somebody,” said Drouin. “An accident because of the fouls, because of the tangles, because of the way the gear configurations are different, someone is going to get more seriously hurt, if not killed.”

“I don’t know if that’s what it’s going to take,” he said.

Cates said he has requested a meeting with U.S. Senator Susan Collins at the Fishermen’s Forum, where he hopes to bring the gray zone tensions to her attention. The Fishermen’s Forum will take place Feb. 28–March 2 in Rockport.

“If anything is going to change for good, it has to be on the federal level,” said Cates.