arrested for illegally fishing off Bermuda -- Canada has taken the unprecedented step of passing a law that will allow it to confront foreign violators in international waters.

In March, the Canadian longliner Stephen B was seized by Canadian authorities some 250 miles north of Bermuda for illegally harvesting swordfish and tuna.

Under an agreement they made with their government, Canadian fishermen are to refrain from catching those species until summer.

As a result, three other Canadian fishing boats were forced to leave Bermuda, effectively ending an experiment that Government estimated had pumped nearly $200,000 into the local economy.

Now Canada is taking a significant step further -- and has passed the legislation to back itself up.

Last week, the Canadian Senate approved a law that would allow Canada to arrest fishermen who violate a ban on catching endangered groundfish stocks beyond the country's 200-mile limit. Those stocks, which are concentrated in the "nose and tail'' areas of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, have been devastated by decades of overfishing.

The law, which Canadian officials say is entirely in keeping with international statutes, reflects that country's longtime frustration over foreign overfishing - and not without reason.

Since March, when the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation agreed to stop fishing the fragile stocks off Canada to protect important spawning grounds, foreign ships have continued to plunder the stocks without censure.

But though Bermuda figured prominently in the legal manoeuvrings of Canada's own fishermen, the targets of the new law are mostly boats from Europe and Asia, especially Spain, Portugal and South Korea.