There was a time when seiners were kept farther off Prince Edward Island's shores, out past the 25 fathom mark. That's 150 feet of water between the surface and the ocean floor at any time.

When the rules changed is as murky as the floor of the Northumberland Strait after a good Nor'easter.

Sometime in the 1980s the line moved to 17 fathoms. Allister Surette, the man appointed to mediate the dispute last year, searched for document but could not find it.

The documents that brought the seiners closer to the shores of the Island, Surette learned, were burned in a fire.

The P.E.I. government argues that, since those documents do not exist, the federal minister should move the line back out to 25 fathoms.

Political debate was set aside as the dispute came to a head on the Souris wharf last October. When the herring seiners tried to land their catch there, local fishermen blockaded the wharf.

They have a right to use the port because it is a designated federal port, meaning it can be used by a variety of vessels.

The police came, arrests were made, the blockade was broken. Eventually, the herring schools moved toward Cape Breton, and the herring seiners followed.

In 2004, the new federal Minister of Fisheries, Geoff Regan, presented what he feels is a fair compromise based on what his department's scientists are telling him. The line was moved to 20 fathoms, with a scientific fishery between 17 and 20 fathoms. Regan said the scientific fishery would gather information on amount of fish being caught closer to the shore.

The provincial government and Island fishermen are complaining that the scientific fishery is too large. Seiners can catch up to 15 per cent of their total Gulf of St. Lawrence quota in that 17 to 20 fathom zone.

As with many compromises, neither side was happy. The seiners complained. They will be back fishing off the Island's shores, and intend to land their catch in Souris. Island fishermen have strongly suggested they will do what they can to stop them.