A Tiny Island Could Lead To A Big Dispute Between Canada And The US

Machias Seal Island, a flat treeless rock, located between New Brunswich and Maine is home to no permanent residents so one might ask why it's on anybody's radar? The answer rests not with the island, but the water surrounding it. The 720  square km of ocean are a grey zone, utilized by both Canadian and American lobster fishermen. Who should have ultimate dibs?

The island, a sanctuary for seabirds including the Atlantic Puffin, attracts visitors from around the world who come to observe. And they come to see the lighthouse, which was built by the British in 1832 and is now overseen by the Canadian Coast Guard. There are two lightkeepers who look after it, switching off every 28 days.

In an interview with the Canadian Press MP John Williamson,who represents the riding of New Brunswick-Southwest, stated that "The fishing community on Grand Manan is permitted to fish there on an open-end basis and it's our way of laying our claim to this water that is part of the Machias Seal Island dispute."

The matter received renewed attention after Stephen Kelly, a professor at the Center for Canadian Studies at Duke University and a retired American diplomat who served in Canada, wrote a commentary in the New York Times last month in response to the territorial disputes going on between Japan and China over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. Kelly's concerns are that a

"valuable resource" could materialize in the grey zone or "some other contingency that we can't imagine now of strategic importance" develops.  "Wouldn't we feel silly that we didn't take the opportunity to resolve this when the stakes were relatively low?"

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, there's no question as to ownership of the island and surrounding waters is clear: they are Canadian. Spokeswoman Barbara Harvey said in a statement that "Canada's sovereignty over Machias Seal Island and sovereign jurisdiction over the 210 square nautical mile surrounding waters is strongly founded in international law."