LUBEC, Maine (AP)   A marine building on the National Register of Historic Places is half-submerged on a Canadian island–and may disintegrate before legal tangles are resolved.

The Bangor Daily News reports that the Jan. 4 blizzard tore the brine shed from McCurdy’s Smokehouse, and it floated to nearby Campobello Island.

McCurdy’s is the traditional smoked-herring facility in the U.S., and Lubec Landmarks has worked for almost 25 years to preserve it.

Lubec Landmarks president Rachel Rubeor said Canadian officials aren’t allowing U.S. contractors to proceed with a rescue because of “bureaucratic nonsense.” She said the legal tangles include salvage rights claims by some Canadian citizens.

Rubeor said she fears Canadian vandals with chain saws will “cannibalize our building” before the issues are sorted out. Some lumber already has been removed.