Gulf of Maine Boundary
Machias Seal Island's (and North Rock's) sovereignty would likely not still be in question today if it were not for the decision by Canada and the United States to avoid settling this issue in their 1979 joint application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague in the Netherlands to have the maritime boundary delineated in the Gulf of Maine for fishing and mineral exploration purposes on Georges Bank.
Both nations avoided having ICJ rule on the sovereignty of Machias Seal Island and North Rock by agreeing to have a common starting point for the offshore boundary southwest of the island at 44°11′12″N 67°16′46″W / 44.18667°N 67.27944°W / 44.18667; -67.27944. The October 12, 1984, ICJ ruling, Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary in the Gulf of Maine Area (Canada/United States of America), has since highlighted a gap in the maritime boundary for several dozen kilometres between the current end of the International Boundary and the 1984 Gulf of Maine boundary starting point. Machias Seal Island and North Rock lie in the middle of this "grey zone" -- a term coined by fishermen from both countries, referring to unclear jurisdictional boundaries in the area.
Read more about this topic: Machias Seal Island
Famous quotes containing the words gulf of, gulf, maine and/or boundary:
“His father watched him across the gulf of years and pathos which always must divide a father from his son.”
—J.P. (John Phillips)
“I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Making a logging-road in the Maine woods is called “swamping” it, and they who do the work are called “swampers.” I now perceived the fitness of the term. This was the most perfectly swamped of all the roads I ever saw. Nature must have coöperated with art here.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Superstition? Who can define the boundary line between the superstition of yesterday and the scientific fact of tomorrow?”
—Garrett Fort (1900–1945)