Then he went on fueling his boat for the next day’s 40-mile round-trip voyage.You can observe at very close range breeding: Atlantic Puffin, Razorbill, Common Tern, and Arctic Tern. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” she observed.īarna shot back, “But if you steal an automobile and a policeman stops you, you can’t say possession is nine-tenths of the law.” At the port, the old captain argued about Machias Seal Island with a Canadian woman. “The island belongs to me, but everyone is welcome,” said the younger Norton, who stands ready to carry his father’s torch and who plans to will the island to his daughter, now 5.Īs for Barna, he makes it clear his claim remains strong. Today, the Nortons’ interest in the island has more to do with national and family honor.Īfter returning to their home base at Jonesport, Maine, on a lazy summer day, John Norton reflected on the dream of winning ownership of the island as he relaxed in the sun on their 30-foot boat, The Chief. Barna figures he broke no Canadian laws, since the transactions took place on U.S. Transferring them to Canadian boats at Machias Seal Island allowed the sailors to dodge customs fees. There was a time, after Barna served in the Coast Guard during World War II, when he used the island as a relay point for refrigerators and other appliances en route from Maine to be sold in Canada. One change the elder Norton would make if he got control: limiting access by academics who “study the birds to death.” In fact, the Nortons say Canadian officials do a fairly good job running the island. While the Nortons accuse Canada of stealing their bird-covered island, they don’t have any problems with the Canadian ranger and lighthouse keeper who live there. “They’re such round butterballs,” said Simon Thompson of Tryon, N.C. Most tourists are drawn by the puffins, black and white penguin-like birds with bright orange beaks and feet, strong swimmers but graceless on land. “You see them playing with each other, tugging on each other’s tails,” said Rudy Bosch, a schoolteacher from Hailey, Idaho, as he ate lunch in the shadow of the lighthouse. Typically, some tourists get pecked on the head by the birds.įrom small, shedlike blinds, the bird-watchers get a close-up view of flocks of birds cavorting on rocks just a few feet away.
Only the low moan of a foghorn competes with the crash of waves, rush of wind and calls of birds, thick in the blue summer sky.īarna keeps an American flag clipped to an umbrella he uses to ward off marauding terns as he leads his visitors, who pay $50 apiece, past a sign identifying the land as a Canadian Coast Guard facility and wildlife preserve. The State Department said it wants to resolve the issue, but Canada has refused to discuss it.Īs the diplomatic standoff continues, Norton and his son ferry bird-watchers to the disputed island to see its thousands of puffins, arctic terns, common terns and razorbill auks.
The letter adds, “You have every right to ignore any regulations that Canada might pretend to set for Machias Seal Island.” State Department that declares: “Machias Seal Island is part of the United States and has been since the founding of the Republic.” Norton’s efforts are backed by a 1983 letter from the U.S.
claim derives from the 1783 peace treaty with Britain that ended the American Revolution.
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