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It’s common for Maine politicians to joust over who would better support the iconic lobster fishery, but a recent claim of illegal Canadian incursions into our waters stands out in the race for the swing 2nd Congressional District.
It came in a 30-second ad released last week by state Rep. Austin Theriault, R-Fort Kent, who made the latest reference to Maine’s export by claiming “Washington politicians” have allowed Canadian lobstermen to illegally fish. That came after his opponent, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat, put out an ad featuring a lobsterman union leader backing his work.
Theriault’s claim of illegal fishing is notable because it does not cite data while alluding to long-running territorial disputes. A deeper dive shows official statistics are not available on the U.S. side but that Canadians have identified illicit activity by Americans amid a long-running “gray zone” territorial dispute in the Gulf of Maine.
What they’re saying: “Washington politicians allow Canada to illegally lobster in our waters, decimating our lobster population, stealing from the next generation,” Theriault says in his new ad as it flashes text across the screen from news articles that are several years old.
One of the stories mentioned is a National Geographic piece from July 2018 on the U.S. Border Patrol stopping Canadian fishermen in the disputed “gray zone” in the Gulf of Maine, which has long been fished by those on both sides of the border. At the time, the federal government said it was conducting immigration enforcement, but locals were skeptical at the time.
Preya Samsundar, a Theriault spokesperson, said he will “propose tougher trade negotiations to ensure the Canadians honor our treaty and fight for increased funding for Border Patrol to ensure they have the resources to monitor our waters.”
The big picture: A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson referred a reporter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for data on illegal fishing incidents. A NOAA spokesperson said that data on illegal fishing was not available to its staff.
Lauren Sankey, a spokesperson for Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said officers have seized American lobster traps this year “that were placed over the boundary line in Canadian waters” and that the violations are currently under investigation.
Theriault’s ad does not mention those reports of U.S. fishermen placing lobster traps on the Canadian side of the border since the beginning of August and the investigation into potential violations of Canadian law. While it’s not related to lobster, five Mainers were arrested in Nova Scotia in April for allegedly poaching baby eels — or elvers.
A federal report to Congress in 2022 said NOAA had assisted the Canadian government that year in identifying the owners of “several hundred” illegal U.S. lobster traps found in Canadian waters. The owners were commercial fishermen “operating under Maine state licenses and Passamaquoddy tribal members operating under tribal licenses.”
Sankey added that the Canadian department collaborates with American agencies, such as the Coast Guard, Maine Marine Patrol and NOAA, to “monitor Canadian vessels attempting to fish on the U.S. side of the boundary.”
