And a Bermudian who made three trips with the Canadian fishing boats says their departure will leave him unemployed.

"I'm sorry to see them have to go,'' said Mr. Calvin Johnston, 46, of Warwick.

Chased into a foreign port by his own Government, Capt. Wayne Nickerson of Woods Harbour, Nova Scotia said his own Department of Fisheries was keeping him from earning a living.

But he was also critical of the Bermuda Government for not warning him that there were parts of the Atlantic outside of 200-mile protected zones where he was not permitted to fish.

Mr. Nickerson raced to Bermuda on Saturday with his longline fishing boat Eastpack II , after learning the Canadian fishing boat Steven B was boarded by Canadian Fisheries officials and towed back to Halifax to face charges.

The Eastpack II was fishing about 400 miles north of Bermuda when Mr.

Nickerson learned of the arrest of the Steven B . Earlier, he saw a Canadian Forces plane overhead.

"I also heard there were two destroyers looking for us, doing 48 knots apiece,'' he said.

"It really doesn't make you very proud to be a Canadian,'' said Mr.

Nickerson, 52. "Why is Canada coming down so damn hard on us, when the Taiwanese and Japanese have been fishing here for the last 20 years, using the same permits that we've got?'' The Steven B , which was licensed to fish within Bermuda's 200-mile limit, was arrested on Wednesday 255 miles north of Bermuda. Her captain, Mr. Merle Gorham, is charged with illegally fishing in the North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation convention area.

Moored beside the Eastpack II at Penno's Wharf in St. George's on Easter Sunday were two other East Coast Canadian fishing boats -- the Renee and Trevor and the Flying Dart .

They were among seven Canadian fishing boats whose owners escaped the closure of the Canadian cod fishery by purchasing Bermudian permits and moving south to fish for tuna and swordfish this winter.

"We couldn't make a go of things back home, because everything had been shut down,'' Mr. Nickerson said. "We've expanded our territories to try to survive any way we could.

"It's ironic, I think, that Canada won't let us even try to make a living.'' Mr. Johnston, who returned on Saturday from his third trip with the Canadian longliners, told of the excitement of being chased by Canadian Fisheries vessels.

"It was frightening,'' he said. "I thought: `God, I hope I don't get locked up in Canada'.'' But he said he learned from the Canadians and was sorry to see them leave, since Bermudians did not have large fishing boats that could venture as far out to sea.

"I'm hoping Government will pay some attention to this and help some Bermudian fishermen by investing in something like this, because it's worth it,'' he said.

"I made a few dollars, and after the fish get auctioned off, I've got a few dollars coming to me.'' Tired and dispirited, Mr. Nickerson said he and the others would likely head home early this week. He has a wife and four children in Woods Harbour.

"They tell me it was in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald that the DFO is threatening to take the personal fishing licences off everyone who is doing the fishing,'' he said. "That's our livelihood.

"The first of the week, in all probability, we'll be going back to Nova Scotia.'' The tuna weren't biting and "we weren't making any money, anyway''.

Mr. Jim Redmond of Hilton Fisheries Ltd., which owns the Steven B , said from Halifax that Mr. Nickerson might be better off to continue fishing within Bermuda's 200-mile limit.

"I think it's known that when the Eastpack II does return to Canada, as well as the Renee and Trevor , they will be charged,'' Mr. Redmond said.

"Their only safe haven now is in Bermuda.'' The Flying Dart is a special case, Mr. Redmond said. While it is Canadian registered, it has yet to fish in the area, and it holds no Canadian licence, he said.

Mr. Nickerson questioned why the Bermuda Government did not give better instructions on where the Canadians could fish. "We were told we could fish anywhere except 75 miles from Bermuda,'' he said. "We could fish anywhere else in the Atlantic as long as we stayed outside of the Canadian and US 200-mile limits.'' Only this week did Mr. Nickerson learn of the larger protected area. "It's hard to believe that they have that much jurisdiction, but I guess they do,'' he said of the Canadians. "I don't know why the Bermuda Department of Fisheries didn't know this.'' Mr. Redmond, who organised the licensing of all the Canadian ships, said he had no complaints with the Bermuda Government, but he may seek damages from the Canadians.

"I've been basically singled out by the wrath of the federal bureaucracy of Canada,'' he said. "My vessel is worth $1.8 million, and I'm not even allowed to go aboard my vessel to inspect it.'' Armed Fisheries officers boarded the Steven B , "quarantined the crew in the pilot house, and threatened to break their arms and legs with riot sticks,'' he said.

"This is the first time in the history of the Canadian fishing industry that they've gone outside the 200-mile limit to apprehend a vessel.'' But on Saturday, the Canadians seized a Panamanian-flagged fishing trawler in the North Atlantic, just outside Canadian territorial waters.

Fisheries Minister the Hon. Brian Tobin has launched a drive to protect dwindling stocks. The ship, which was owned by a Canadian company and had a Portuguese crew, was towed to St. John's, Newfoundland.