A Canadian senator from New Brunswick says an American tour company’s description of a small island at the centre of a longstanding sovereignty dispute is “unacceptable.”
Machias Seal Island is a tiny tear-shaped island — about 550 metres long and 250 metres wide — located in the Bay of Fundy off New Brunswick.
Both Canada and the United States have tried to claim the island, which is mostly uninhabited except for a lighthouse keeper and some researchers studying the island’s seabird colonies.
Sen. Jim Quinn, who is from New Brunswick, says he was upset to see an American tour company website describe the island as being “on the Maine coast.”
“That’s unacceptable in this day and age, especially with where we are with our neighbours to the south,” he said. “That administration has made various claims about Canada and its 51st state and all of these things.”
Machias Seal Island is a migratory bird sanctuary maintained by the Government of Canada. The lightkeeper is flown in every few months from the Canadian Coast Guard and only two small tour boat companies, one of which is Canadian and the other American, are allowed to visit the island during certain months.
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On its website, the American tour operator Bold Coast Charter Company describes the island as being “the largest colony on the coast of Maine” and advises American tourists that a passport is unnecessary to visit the spot.
The company’s site also says, “Ownership of the island has been under dispute for many years, with both the United States and Canadian governments claiming sovereignty.”
Indeed, the island’s sovereignty has been in dispute for centuries, dating back to 1621, and has been revived over the years. The “grey zone” where Canadian and American claims overlap have also led to disputes between lobster fishermen.
New Brunswick built the lighthouse there in the early 1800s to legitimize it as Canadian.
“It also has an important function in ensuring that the United States government understands that it’s Canadian territory and that we’ve got people there staffing that lighthouse,” said Quinn.
“And it’s the Canadian flag that flies over that island, not the United States flag.”
Anyone visiting the island needs permission from Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Quinn wants the department to revoke the Bold Coast Charter Company’s permission until they acknowledge the island is Canadian.
He’s also calling on the federal government to do more to tighten up cross-border access.
“We have staffed lighthouse keepers there who can check ID and things like that on behalf of customs, but something needs to be done,” he said.
“We’re being pushed in so many ways, and yet here’s a porous point in our border that that that nobody’s paying attention to.”
Global News reached out to Bold Coast Charter Company for comment but hasn’t received a response as of deadline.
–with a file from Amanda Connolly
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