Canadian fishermen maintained their hull-to-hull blockade of an Alaska ferry carrying tourists on Monday. Authorities were trying to decide how to enforce a court order to end the impasse, which centers on salmon quotas between the two nations.

The Malaspina was carrying 328 passengers and 71 vehicles when it was encircled by as many as 200 Canadian fishing boats after it docked here Saturday.

The two- to three-deep string of fishing boats continued to surround the ferry Monday despite a court order to let the vessel sail for its next scheduled stop at Ketchikan, Alaska.

The fishermen were showing little interest in ending their blockade.

“I have not sent a call out to the boats,” spokesman Kim Olsen said.

“They have decided … that they are not willing to move until Mr. Anderson” (federal fisheries minister David Anderson) arrives on the scene, Olsen said.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police gave the fishermen copies of Sunday’s court order, but it was not clear whether the officers would try to enforce it Monday.

The dispute centers in part on Alaskans who catch sockeye salmon bound for Canadian rivers and streams.

The Canadians also want Anderson to restart failed salmon talks with the United States and allow northern British Columbia fishermen to increase their take of Fraser River sockeye.

The incident prompted some tough language Monday from the State Department.

“The United States has protested and continues to protest this blockade,” spokesman Nicholas Burns said. “And we also protest the refusal of Canadian federal authorities to stop the blockade or to enforce the court injunction.

“Canada must take action to enforce the court’s judgment,” he said. “The blockade harms innocent people who have nothing to do with the salmon fishery. It also is unhelpful, very unhelpful to our efforts, which we suppose and assume the government of Canada shares, to get the salmon talks back on track.”

The ferry blockade was snarling Alaska tourist traffic up and down the Pacific Northwest coast at the height of the travel season.

The Alaska Marine Highway System has only six ferries working along the state’s Southeast Panhandle, with two more serving the rest of Alaska.