US, Canadian Fishermen At War Over Lobster Waters

BAY OF FUNDY — There have been death threats on both sides of the watery divide between the United States and Canada, as lobstermen accuse each other of sabotaging lines, stealing gear, and setting traps atop those already in the water.

The two countries have long shared the world’s longest border peaceably, but a centuries-old conflict over 277 square miles of disputed, increasingly lucrative waters has sown discord and threatens to shatter the tranquility between Maine and New Brunswick.

Fueling the tension is the rising price of lobster, which has attracted more Canadian fishermen to the lobster-rich waters of the so-called gray zone, the disputed territory fished mainly by Americans until a decade ago. Both countries allow their lobstermen to fish there and acquiesce to the presence of their neighboring fishermen, though each claims exclusive ownership of the waters.

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