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Captain Dorsey. Excuse me, sir; no. The southern line is the 

 equidistant line. The northern line is the A-B Line. 



Senator Stevens. It shows the A-B 



The Chairman. Where? 



Senator Stevens. Where the line is straight. 



Captain Dorsey. The A-B Line is the northern line. That is 

 right. Straight across; yes, sir. 



Senator Stevens. At any rate, a straight line. Was it the north- 

 ern line that the United States agreed to Captain Dorsey? 



Captain Dorsey. Well, the United States took the position, sir, 

 that it is the equidistant line; the Canadians have never agreed to 

 the equidistant line to my knowledge. They have decided to assert 

 the A-B Line as the dividing line between the United States and 

 Canada for all purposes. 



Senator Stevens. I thought they agreed at one time with us. 



The Chairman. Still in 



Senator Stevens. But the main point is that today you enforce 

 against the Americans that they can fish in disputed areas, but you 

 do not see the Canadians do it; right? 



Captain Dorsey. That's right, sir; we accept the principle that 

 was agreed to between Canada and the United States of flag-state 

 enforcement; in other words, the United States enforces against 

 U.S. vessels in the disputed area and Canada would enforce 

 against Canadian vessels, but we would not enforce against each 

 other's vessels in that area. 



Senator Stevens. But I hear reports that Canadians are at the 

 same time harassing Americans in that disputed area; is that 

 right? 



Captain Dorsey. From time to time, yes, sir; they do. 



There are remarks of course, on the radio periodically. We 

 haven't had any serious incidents of conflict between the vessels in 

 a physical sense; however, there is a lot of harassment on the radio 

 down there. And, as I mentioned, the Canadian Department of 

 Fisheries and Oceans vessels that patrol in that area have told 

 U.S. vessels, "y° u mav n °t fish in this area. Please proceed north 

 of the A-B Line." The reason they do that is that they maintain 

 that the agreement for flag-state enforcement only applies to tradi- 

 tional fisheries in that area. They do not recognize any of the cur- 

 rent fisheries that the United States conducts in the disputed area 

 as "traditional" fisheries. So, they repeatedly advise our people to 

 move north of the A-B Line. They have not taken any enforcement 

 action in the sense of seizure or boardings on any vessel that failed 

 to leave the area, but they kind of rely on the reluctance of fisher- 

 men trying to test what their reaction will be, and some U.S. ves- 

 sels have moved north of the line. That is why we have undertaken 

 an educational process to try to educate the U.S. fishermen on the 

 A-B Line. 



From the Floor. I have a question very pertinent to the ques- 

 tion just asked. May I say a word? 



Senator Stevens. Well, I think we better wait until the chair- 

 man takes questions. 



I do think we need to understand where the negotiated line was 

 during the Carter administration. We supported that line. The 

 State of Alaska supported it. The Federal Government supported it, 



