Border dispute
 
Years after the Canadian and American governments divvied up their habitat, the news has not reached the creatures living on Georges Bank. Thousands, if not millions, of types of sea life thrive in the circular ocean currents that make the bank in the Gulf of Maine one of the richest fishing grounds in the world. Willy-nilly, they continue to propel themselves back and forth across the demarcation line. Published: The Globe and Mail, August 5, 1989 BY DEBORAH JONES, YARMOUTH, N.S. NEARLY FIVE YEARS after governments divvied up their habitat, the news has not reached the creatures living on Georges Bank. Thousands, if not millions, of types of sea life thrive in the circular ocean currents that make the bank in the Gulf of Maine one of the richest fishing grounds in the world. In the fall of 1984, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Canada owns a rich one-sixth of the bank and gave the United States the rest. But the sea creatures have ignored the decision of the august court. Willy-nilly they continue to propel themselves back and forth across the demarcation line. And in an atmosphere as tense as the fog on the bank is thick, fishermen intent on catching them follow them across. Ottawa is dismayed that Americans are crossing the line to catch fish on the Canadian side, a practice said to endanger attempts to impose government regulation on the Canadian portion and thus conserve stocks for the future. For its part, Washington is dismayed that Canadians have armed their patrol vessels, and actually fired shots across the bow of one U.S. fishing vessel caught on the Canadian side of the bank. Last month, after the capture of the U.S. fishing boat Guidance and a $200,000 fine imposed on its captain, Massachusetts Democrat Gerry Studds, a senior member of the House of Representatives' merchant marine and fisheries committee, warned: ''If this keeps up, someone is going to get killed.'' A different bone sticks in the craw of Canadian fisheries' managers. Continued exploitation of fish stocks by Americans on Georges Bank makes it very difficult to persuade Canadian fishermen that by staying home periodically they will get bigger catches in the future. ''It's difficult for them to understand why their efforts are being restricted while their cousins to the south are going at it hammer and tong,'' said Nova Scotia fisheries consultant Geoffrey Hurley. A big part of the problem is the gulf between how Canadians and Americans manage fish resources. Canadian fishermen operate under what has been called the most sweeping management regime in any industry anywhere in the world. Regulations dictate details as small as the size of net mesh, as large as the length of fishing boats, and designate when and for how long such boats can venture out. ''It's the one area where the federal government, through the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, actively manages an industry,'' said Wayne Shinners, assistant deputy minister for the Atlantic region. ''In managing it we end up managing the people and the communities, and not only the fish themselves.'' In contrast, the United States has a laissez-faire approach, limiting controls to mesh size, haddock spawning areas and minimum fish size. In the wake of the chase of the scallop-dragger Bountiful last week by the patrol vessel Cygnus, U.S. and Canadian officials got together in Ottawa on Wednesday to discuss how to handle confrontations between U.S. fishermen and gun-toting Canadian fishery patrol boats. They agreed to establish committees to look for ''ways to ensure that the sovereign rights of both states were maintained and to lessen the risk of injury in the Gulf of Maine.'' The committees are to meet in September and report later in the fall. Then on Thursday in Halifax, charges of unlawful entry into Canadian waters, illegal fishing and refusing to stop their vessel when ordered were laid in absentia against two Massachusetts captains, David Saunders of the Bountiful and William Kosonen, whose dragger Kathleen and Julie II was chased by a Canadian patrol vessel on June 29. Some observers suggest that if a solution for Georges Bank emerges it could provide a model for boundary disputes elsewhere in the world - just as the World Court's ruling five years ago has played a role in other settlements. ''Canada has to come up with a co-operative management system with the Americans,'' Mr. Hurley said. ''That's the only way that bank is going to survive.'' However, there is little optimism that co-operation in management will come easily or soon. ''The important thing when you have straddling stocks is to have a management system in place,'' said Elizabeth Borgese, an international expert on the Law of the Sea and professor at Dalhousie University. ''I believe strongly in joint management. But for that you need a neighbor who is co-operative.'' Short-term U.S. interests putting immediate profits before conservation for the future work against co-operative management, she said. ''They may not be real interests. It's just to make the most for your pocket in the shortest time. Which is not a very intelligent strategy; it doesn't pay at all.'' Prof. Borgese finds little cause for hope in the meetings between U.S. and Canadian bureaucrats. She said the clashes on Georges Bank represent larger cultural differences between the two countries, and U.S. protectionism. ''It's part of a much bigger picture of U.S. attitudes,'' she said. ''New legislation that's tremendously protectionist'' is now before Congress. ''In that kind of an atmosphere there's not much that could encourage us to believe they will turn to economic co-operation. ''It goes so far that even the free-trade deal is perhaps endangered.'' For all the problems and all that the World Court's decision did not accomplish, specialists on the Law of the Sea call the ruling a milestone. ''There are those that still growl about the Georges Bank ruling as being contrary to Canadian interests, but the fact of the matter is we got the most lucrative scallop area,'' said lawyer Clifford Hood of Yarmouth. Canadian management of scallop stocks has already benefited that particular fishery, he said. ''I think it's had a very positive effect on the Canadian situation. Had there not been a decision I'm quite certain the Americans would have continued to overfish.'' Prof. Borgese said Georges Bank ''was a very significant decision. My God, so much work went into it, so many factors, so many considerations, it was in a way a model decision.'' And although World Court boundary decisions ''are not supposed to be precedent-setting because the court considers each on the merits of its own case, it was a landmark decision on almost any issue - length of coastline, fishing traditions, geological factors. These factors are cited in every boundary decision now.'' Around the world, hundreds of marine boundary disputes have been created since the seventies as countries extended their economic zones to 200 miles. Until then there was space between states, Prof. Borgese said. ''Now countries are sitting on top of each other.'' She repeated that co-operation among states is the answer. ''In the long term the boundaries will not be all that important, because as we learn more and more, there are a lot of factors that don't respect the boundaries. Fish don't, pollution doesn't. We'll have to learn to think transboundary-wise.'' Copyright Deborah Jones 1989 About this website: Text and photos by Deborah Jones except where otherwise noted. 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Fish and the scales of justice
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