[Webstral]

My new bathroom reading is The Lobster Coast, which is a history of t coastal Maine by Colin Woodard (the author of American Nations). Reading it makes me think about Poseidon’s Rifles. I did some homework on the cod fisheries of the northwestern Atlantic. Though they were in tough shape in 1997, they were not at total collapse yet. Thinking about the relationship between American and Canadian fishing, I had more ugly ideas than in the past. The Canadian Navy would have been devastated by the very extensive strikes on the Atlantic Provinces and Quebec. (Too bad Canada had no nukes, right?) I know now what USCGC Gallatin was doing when she was at sea 1998-2001. She was eliminating Canadian competition for cod and other fish from George’s Bank at the entrance to the Gulf of Maine to Grand Bank off Newfoundland. This is a very unhappy thought. Yet we’re talking Twilight: 2000, right? Former allies turn on each other all the time after the nuclear exchange. Why would northeastern North America be any different? “Anti-piracy” easily could morph into missions to keep the Canadians from exploiting fisheries anywhere fishing vessels operating out of Maine, New Hampshire, and northeastern Massachusetts could reach.

Ugh. I feel dirty and awful contemplating the idea that the US Coast Guard essentially would wage war against the fishing boats and communities of the Atlantic Provinces. That’s Twilight: 2000, though.