(upbeat music) - So while I was on this
road trip headed North, we got into New England and everything started to look like this. (upbeat music) There was Fishing Towns, there was loads of clam
chowder everywhere. There were cliffs and
boats and lighthouses. This village is so cool. But wait, this isn't a family
vlog that we're doing here. 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've spent tracing these lines on a map just looking
at them, following them, looking for, nothing just looking, seeing what shaped 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 US Canada Border, the border that frames the State of Maine, I eventually started to
get into the ocean where this border line 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. (indistinct voices) - What is this? A freak out? - 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 US and Canada. - [Expounder] This area has
never been properly surveyed. It's as far as who owns what. - [Man] We don't wanna do
this, we have no choice. (dramatic music) - 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. Not unless you fast forward
100 years to the 1970s. (upbeat 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 settled 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
continued to look like this. This is called the Grey Zone and it is the one territorial border dispute between the United States and Canada. Wait, 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, Storyblocks is a great
way to get your hands on high quality footage
to use in your projects. Go to STORYBLOCKS.COM/JOHNNYHARRIS. It's a 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. (suspenseful music) Okay, so you have this sort
of bizarre border dispute between the US 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. (bright music) - [Man Two] 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 roll. - Lobstering is a big deal in Maine, like a 500 million dollar big deal. It is the number one export
of the state and Maine, takes in more lobster than any other state in the United States. And now surprisingly, it
is a big deal in Canada who also has a giant lobster industry. This Grey Zone, the disputed
territory in the ocean straddles the fishing zones
between the two countries. 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 Grey 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 Grey 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. - [Narrator] We've had people shot over lobster fishing complex, you know, and significant violence over lobster fishing. - So I guess the big question is, who actually owns this water?
Who has the more legit claim? At the heart of the Canadian
claim is this light house. This light house 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 light houses
have become totally automated, meaning they don't need
people to run them, the Canadian Military has insisted on keeping a person there 24 seven. 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 light house 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. - [Light House Keeper]
Instead of being the keeper of the light house here you more of the keeper of the island. - Meanwhile, the US 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
US claims on this island. There was this guy, his
name was Barnabas what? Bartnad, Barnabas? - Barna Norton.
- Barna Norton. - Barna.
- Barna. - 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. - [Barna] So 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 US 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 lead 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. (sighs) 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 question by US border patrol agents
at the Gulf of Maine. The US officials claim
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 Grey Zone to stop Canadian Lobstermen and interrogate them. They stopped 10 different
crews and asked them about drugs and immigration. It's 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? - [Commentator] Hey look at this, Donald Trump, Donald Trump. (crowd cheering) - [Commentator Two] 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. (upbeat music) 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
Grey 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 Grey Zone. - How did you let that, how
do they let that happen? - [Man] Obama just used it. - That was President Obama.
Thank you very much. - 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. - You got to be kidding.
Is that right? - [Man] That's correct, Sir. - So they just closed it
they said you can't fish. But let me guess other countries do right? Yeah, they do. - And then of course, he
followed his standard script and basically mentioned how great is. - [Donald Trump] You
so lucky I'm president, you are so lucky. I don't even know you
and you are 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, US 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 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 US 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 Lobstermen will keep
fighting and overfishing in the Grey Zone and
boats from both countries will continue to cut out loads of tourists to take pictures of Puffins. (bright music) Thank you Starblocks 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. Bye.
