so while i was on this road trip
headed north we got into new england and
everything started to look like this
[Music]
there was fishing towns there was loads
of clam chowder everywhere
there were cliffs and boats and
lighthouses boys
this village is so cool
but wait this isn't a family vlog that
we're doing here that you saw the title
we're talking about a border dispute
so yeah while i'm on this trip i do what
i always do
i look at the map of where we're going
and i sort of start to explore and
being the person that i am my attention
always drifts away from the actual road
trip route and starts focusing on this
weird line up here
these are the lines we use to draw
countries
we call them borders and man the number
of hours i have spent
tracing these lines on a map just
looking at them following them
looking for well nothing just looking
seeing what shape this important
imaginary line takes
most of the time it's pretty predictable
a river or a straight line determined by
some treaty but as i traced this u.s
canada border the border that frames the
state of maine
i eventually started to get into the
ocean where this borderline on google
maps runs into a hard stop
right here off the coast of maine when i
see something like this
my curiosity wheels just start spinning
and i can't
not look into it
and it turns out that this line that
looks like the end of something
is actually just the beginning two lines
two different claims this is the story
of a little rocky island
with a solitary lighthouse it's the
story of canadian and american fishermen
looking for lobsters and competing with
each other it's the story of
puffins and tourists and donald trump's
foreign policy
this is the story of the one territorial
border dispute between the u.s and
canada
this area has never been properly
surveyed
as far as who owns what we don't want to
do this we have no choice
this is the longest border in the world
and
it's not really full of much drama if
you rewind a bit
you'll see that this whole area was
claimed by the british empire there was
no canada there was no united states but
eventually the british settlers down
here decided to rebel from the empire
and start their own country
the british conceded all of this land to
the new united states of america
fast forward 100 years and you now have
the country of canada and the border
that we know today
begins to take shape without too much
conflict but over here in the ocean
there were some problems the treaty that
the british had signed with the newly
independent americans
had said that the united states could
claim any territory that was south of
this river and that was within
20 leagues of its coast there was this
one island over here called machias seal
island which was well within the claim
of the united states based on this
treaty but the british up here
which were soon to be canadians
referenced an even earlier document
that said that they owned any island
that was within
six leagues of their coast so if you
look at that island
you can see that there are some
overlapping claims
both of these documents gave this one
island to
both of these countries these
conflicting treaties caused
all sorts of border issues in the ocean
up in new england off the coast of maine
but no one really cared because
there was nothing valuable about this
piece of ocean
unless you fast forward 100 years to the
1970s
[Music]
so it's the 1970s and the united states
and canada are realizing that
this piece of ocean is actually pretty
valuable because it has mineral deposits
that they want to extract
so they take their dispute to the
international court of justice
which is in charge of working out border
disputes especially in the ocean
they both submit their claims and over
the next like five years
the international court of justice does
potentially the most boring
work in the world looking at so many
measurements and so many
different charts and maps and treaties
to determine where this border should be
and by the mid-1980s they settle on
a clean nice border that looks like this
until it got right here
this is the area surrounding machias
seal island
a tiny rocky island that both countries
claim there was no known minerals here
there was nothing
valuable all there was was this old
lighthouse that the british had built in
the 1800s
and that the canadians inherited so the
borders here continue to look like this
this is called the gray zone and it is
the one
territorial border dispute between the
united states and canada
[Music]
wait wait pause look at this clip i did
not shoot this clip myself
didn't go into the middle of the ocean
to get this random clip
instead i downloaded it from storyblocks
who is the sponsor of this video
and who i'm going to tell you about for
a minute before we continue
on our journey about this weird border
dispute storyblocks is a place where i
get loads of footage
lots of the footage you've seen in this
video came from storyblocks
because even though i was traveling up
in new england
i was not deep in the atlantic ocean
with my drone but luckily thanks to
storyblocks i was able to go on and find
lots of really solid footage that helps
make
stories a lot more visually rich i've
used storyblocks for like
five or six years long before they ever
came to sponsor me i've used it for a
lot of other projects for borders and
lots of other things
and i can't say enough good things about
it it is a giant repository
of hundreds of thousands of assets not
just footage but also after effects
templates
sound effects it's just a huge amount of
stuff that you can use to create
beautiful
video the other thing i love about it is
that it's a subscription so you pay one
monthly subscription
and you get unlimited downloads of this
high quality footage so you can like
download like as many clips as you want
and you pay the same price
which is really nice if you are a
creator of any sort even if you don't do
this professionally and you want to
practice and learn
storybox is a great way to get your
hands on high quality footage
to use in your projects go to
storyblocks.com
johnny harris the link in my description
when you click that link it supports
this channel but it also helps you learn
more about how to get in
on all this amazing footage and
different assets thank you storyblocks
for sponsoring this video
and now back to the story
[Music]
okay so you have this sort of bizarre
border dispute between the u.s and
canada
but there aren't any natural resources
for anyone to actually care about this
but that quickly starts to change as i
drove north into new england
i became familiar with a natural
resource that
is actually very valuable and that would
turn this rocky lighthouse island
into an actual conflict and that
resource
looks like this
this is lobster meat it comes from a
lobster that lives at the bottom of the
ocean and the people catch around here
and bring to my role lobstering is a
big deal in maine like a 500 million
dollar
big deal it is the number one export of
this state
and maine takes in more lobster than any
other state in the united states
and not surprisingly it is a big deal in
canada who also has a giant lobster
industry
this gray zone the disputed territory in
the ocean
straddles the fishing zones between the
two countries
[Music]
so right now this is really the crux of
the conflict you have a growing lobster
industry on both sides
with independent lobstermen trying to
maximize their catch and going into the
gray zone
the problem is that canada and the
united states have different rules and
regulations
around when you can fish how much you
can fish but when they get into the gray
zone
a lot of that sort of goes out the
window and it leads to
some major conflict some deep resentment
between the lobstermen
and overfishing of this delicate
ecosystem
we've had people shot over lobster
fishing conflicts
and significant violence over lobster
fishing column so i guess the big
question is
who actually owns this water like
who has the more legit claim at the
heart of the canadian claim
is this lighthouse this lighthouse was
built by the british
in the 1800s but the canadians inherited
it and
they've occupied it ever since when
you're disputing over who owns what land
having physical
infrastructure on that land is a pretty
decent claim and even though lighthouses
have become
totally automated meaning they don't
need people to run them
the canadian military has insisted on
keeping
a person there 24 7. they will
helicopter out someone
and their family to man this lighthouse
at all times to make sure
that there are people there not because
anyone needs to be there to run the
lighthouse but solely because they want
to beef up their claim
that this island and the surrounding
water is theirs
if you want to see a glimpse into the
day of the life of the person who
unnecessarily mans
this random lighthouse on a tiny island
there's a really beautifully shot short
film
by a channel called jungles in paris
which gives you an idea
of what this life is like instead of
being the keeper of the light out here
you're more of the keeper of the island
meanwhile the u.s basically says all of
this is bogus
that the island is rightfully theirs the
fishery around the island is rightfully
theirs it has been since
1782 and they do not recognize
any sovereignty of canada on this island
the local fishermen
and population in maine also are very
vehemently
attached to the u.s claim of this island
there was this guy
uh his name was barnabas what bartman
barnabas
barna north banner barna norton who
would
show up every year on the island with an
american flag
to plant it to assert the sovereignty of
the united states once again in front of
this sign i declare this island
belongs to united states
and just remember for the people in
maine this is not about geopolitics
this is about their livelihood the
future of their livelihood of their
number one export
a huge part of their lifestyle and their
economy
and it's the locals who are the most
active in this fight
the u.s government from a federal or
state department level
kind of doesn't really care most of the
time and meanwhile while all of this
lobster
drama is happening you have boats from
both countries bringing tourists onto
the islands
to look at puffins
so let's just get up to speed see where
we're at we're talking about these
vaguely worded treaties that led to
a territorial dispute that no one really
cared about until they did
because of lobsters and then canada put
a
person in this lighthouse even though
this lighthouse didn't need a person
and then there's puffins can you see now
i'm like way into the story okay so now
let's talk about
donald j trump uh i know
okay it turns out that this obscure
small-scale border dispute
is like click bait for donald trump i
mean think about it this is a valuable
american industry that is being
threatened
by outsiders coming in and stealing our
goods
it's just like just perfect for him this
is an opportunity to
show american power the canadian
government is investigating reports
canadian boats have been approached and
questioned by u.s border patrol agents
at the gulf of maine the u.s officials
claimed they were
looking for illegal immigrants and the
border officials have stopped at least
10 fishing boats in the past two weeks
so in 2018 the trump administration
sends out
border patrol into the gray zone to stop
canadian lobster men
and interrogate them they stop ten
different crews
and ask them about drugs and immigration
just like come on dude it was such a
trump thing to do it wasn't like let's
have some overtures for some diplomatic
conversations about how we can actually
resolve this border dispute peacefully
it was like
send in the border patrol and intimidate
them and show them how strong we are
what's going on
over here
the hostile takeover of donald trump so
fast forward to today
it's 2020 and we're in an election year
and when i say that the us government
doesn't care about this border dispute
the caveat to that is during an election
year
suddenly they care
because the people of mainecare and the
people of maine who care
also vote and you get the picture here
the senator from maine
susan collins wrote a letter to the
trump administration
and she was like thanks so much for
sending your like badass border patrol
out to intimidate the canadians
it didn't really do anything can we
actually find a useful
enduring solution to this conflict
through
you know diplomacy she mentioned that
the gray zone is home to this
valuable part of the livelihood of
people in maine
and asked the administration to actually
do something
meanwhile trump has shown a strange
interest in this issue he actually went
to maine
and hosted this round table with a bunch
of people from the fishing industry
and he brought up the gray zone how did
you let that how did they let that
happen
obama just used that was president obama
thank you
so this meeting ended up being trump
going up to basically
rally these people and be pissed off
with them about how they're being
screwed out of their lobster
no you got to be kidding is that right
that's correct sir
so they just closed it they said you
can't fish but let me guess
other countries do right
they do and then of course he followed
his standard script and
basically mentioned how great he is
you're so lucky i'm president
you are so lucky i don't even know you
and you're so lucky
so the upshot here is that canada cares
a lot more about this sovereignty claim
than the united states unless it's an
election year in which case
u.s politicians will do some little
things to
curry favor among lobstermen the us
doesn't really care that much about this
not nearly as much as canada does
who actually uses their like military
resources to man this island
this dispute and the status quo is
likely to stay
sort of as it is unless of course they
discover
a legitimately valuable resource like
oil or
some other very valuable thing if that
were to happen i think
the u.s from like a foreign policy
standpoint
would step up to the plate and actually
wage this war
so for now the lighthouse will continue
to be unnecessarily manned by a canadian
the lobster men will keep fighting and
overfishing in the gray zone
and boats from both countries will
continue to cart out loads of tourists
to take pictures of puffins
[Music]
thank you storyblocks for sponsoring
thank you all for watching i've got
more videos coming up a lot of videos
this month wow
man lots of videos lastly i just want to
say thank you to those who support me on
patreon
it's like such a wonderful community of
people who
are giving their money to support these
videos and i'm
very grateful to them so more to come on
patreon i'll be posting loads of stuff
soon
and i will see you all in the next one
[Music]
bye
[Music]
you