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Title: So we’re apparently at war with Canada. Who knew? [Maine lobster war]
Source:
HotAir
URL Source: http://hotair.com/archives/2015/07/ ... y-at-war-with-canada-who-knew/
Published: Jul 25, 2015
Author: Jazz Shaw
Post Date: 2015-07-26 08:58:07 by Tooconservative
Keywords: None
Views: 3026
Comments: 11
The border war between the United States and Canada is heating up. (Wait… what?) There is apparently a hundreds year old land dispute between our two nations which has never been officially resolved. It involves two tiny, treeless hunks of rock off the coast of the northern border of Maine, called North Rock Island and Machias Seal Island. Their combined permanent human population is… zero. The larger of the two has a lighthouse on it which the Canadians maintain and there’s a science station manned by visiting researchers who want to study the islands’ only real, permanent population composed of approximately 11,600 puffins. So who cares? Apparently the lobster fishermen do, and with prices for the tasty crustaecians hitting all time highs, the tension between American and Canadian fishermen (lobstermen?) is heating up. (From Business Insider) During normal times, the dispute seems to be little more than an annoyance. But apparently this year, there are real problems because the price of lobster is so high ($5.50 a pound in that area, compared to $4 the previous year), according to Zane Schwartz in Maclean’s. Schwartz writes: The conflict bubbles to the surface every few years, when a bellicose lobsterman on one side or the other gets quoted in the press and sets the other side off. But things are different this year. Due to the high price of lobster, new lobstermen have entered the fray, and they are ignoring unwritten rules that have kept the conflict on a low simmer since 1783. Given the well known propensity of Canadians to be polite to a fault, you might think this is much ado about nothing. But there are fears that things are already turning violent. And if you ask the American lobster trappers, the Canadians are nothing like their purported gentle, reasonable reputation. In fact, they’re savages. (From Maclean’s, some emphasis added) Canadian fishermen set lobster traps in the grey zone from July to November. The Americans have a much longer season. Drouin, who has been fishing lobster off the coast of Maine for 37 years, is fed up with what he sees as reckless and unpunished lawbreaking. “Canadians are like Vikings. They’ll rape and pillage and not give a s–t, because they can still go home [after their short season],” says Drouin. How much of this is a dispute that the American government even knows about, to say nothing of caring? It doesn’t sound like we’ve been making any sort of serious pitch to officially declare ownership. The Canadians run the light house. They manage the science station. These are uninhabitable piles of rock in a place which is probably only two bad summers away from being covered by a glacier in most years. I get that the lobsters are valuable and all and our fisherman should certainly have access, but surely there could be some sort of first come, first served agreement reached. But perhaps not. After all… we are talking about the Canadians. People’s fingers are being ripped off by these rapey, pillaging Canadian vikings. I always knew that maple syrup and Labatt Blue drunken bear image was a front. You can never trust the Canadians as we’ve known since they sided with the Brits in a war against us back in the day. If they want to play games and bang their boats up against ours, let’s see how they like competing with an aircraft carrier. And if Obama won’t send one in there immediately I expect all the Republican candidates to weigh in as to how they would handle it. In the meantime, here’s some good old War on Canada footage to get you in the fighting spirit. And then you can chat about whatever you like. It’s Saturday afternoon, after all, so have at it. Poster Comment: So we’re apparently at war with Canada. Who knew? “Somebody is going to get killed. We’ve had bad years in the past and got lucky, but this is the worst year I’ve ever seen,” says American John Drouin, chair of the Maine Lobster Zone Council district in charge of the grey zone. Drouin fears things are even more dangerous than they were eight years ago, when Maine lobsterman Patrick Feeney had his thumb ripped off. It got caught as he was trying to free his equipment while jostling with a Canadian for territory.
(3 images) 
The America-hating seal menace of Rock Island 
The ominous Machias Seal Island 
A virulently anti-American Atlantic puffin in his native
habitat, the most dreaded of all puffins.
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#1. To: TooConservative (#0)
(Edited)
What do puffin taste like? (And no, I am not referring to the breakfast cerial...) Okay = here we go (from an Icelandic cooking blog - ) "Puffin in milk sauce" - (Recipe): Then I guess the next question would be: Okay, do a google search for "puffin meat for sale". "The Atlantic Puffin forms part of the national diet in Iceland. Ya learn new things every day, eh?
Not always new. I had previously suspected that you might like cooking and eating. Puffin dishes might be quite popular in Iceland where they don't have a wide variety of game animals. I suppose it might be a bit like eating dove or other smaller game birds. A comment from your blog link: "In Iceland puffin is a delicacy, they have to lean over cliffs with a twenty or thirty foot net to catch them. It kind of tastes like duck with a fishy taste.It is dark meat, red in color." Maybe Bob can give us a local update on the ground war in northern Maine. We haven't had a war this inconsequential since the Falklands or Panama. I think that if we really unify as a nation, we can finally take Canada, our menacing northern neighbor.
Are you saying that puffin 'fishing' is 'inconsequential'? - LOL.
I went to that island when I spent a vacation at Bar Harbor. It was interesting . There is no dock there so they steer the boat close to the rocks and you have to basically take a big step/leap onto shore .There had to be about 10,000 puffins there and on the surrounding waters . I don't know about the dispute in the waters around the island. But the island was flying the Canadian flag.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
they taste like chicken.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Of course they do. How silly of me for asking...
From your description, it sounds like sheer luck that you escaped with your life. Interesting that you actually visited such an obscure little territorial rock. Was there any native foliage to speak of or just a stark rock landscape?
There were no trees ;some grasses. There were narrow paths through the grass that led to viewing blinds. Besides puffins by the score there were some sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks. There may have been some other birds there that I didn't notice. Here is the website of the tour I took . www.boldcoast.com/ Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Here's 3 Yelp reviews. http://www.yelp.com/biz/bold-coast-charter-company-cutler Which led to a Flickr photo stream: https://www.flickr.com/photos/101206323@N08/
yes Cutler has the look of one of those old time NE fishing communities that you read about in novels . The trip was an amazing experience . But regarding the issue of territorial rights ;I think the US and Canada should get together and come up with a plan that eliminates gray areas . The op article makes it sound like the Chinese v. Phillipines dispute in the South China Sea .
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
First come First served is not how it is handled in domestic waters . I talked to some people in Bar Harbor about lobstering , my impression was that it could get cut throat even though there is strict regulatory management of the industry . Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
http://icecook.blogspot.com/2006/07/puffin-in-milk-sauce-mjlkursoinn-lundi.html
Where can obtain fresh puffin meat without having to
hunt for it?
(Price - $19.99 per pound)
Puffins are hunted by a technique called “sky fishing”, which involves
catching low-flying birds with a big net."
#2. To: Chuck_Wagon, BobCeleste (#1)
(Edited)
Ya learn new things every day, eh?
#3. To: TooConservative (#2)
...a war this inconsequential...
...where they don't have a wide variety of game animals...
And I guess in Iceland you eat whatever you can... "...It is dark meat, red in color...."
Sounds like visually it looks a lot like emu meat - which I
tried once. Remarkably low in fat, and remarkably bland tasting.
I didn't really like it.
#4. To: TooConservative (#0)
#5. To: Chuck_Wagon (#1)
#6. To: tomder55 (#5)
....they taste like chicken.
#7. To: tomder55 (#4)
(Edited)
I don't know about the dispute in the waters around the island. But the island was flying the Canadian flag.
#8. To: TooConservative (#7)
(Edited)
Interesting that you actually visited such an obscure little territorial rock. Was there any native foliage to speak of or just a stark rock landscape?
#9. To: tomder55 (#8)
#10. To: TooConservative (#9)
#11. To: TooConservative (#0)
I get that the lobsters are valuable and all and our fisherman should certainly have access, but surely there could be some sort of first come, first served agreement reached. But perhaps not.
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