PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 3, 2025
For decades, the legal status of puffin-friendly Machias Seal Island has been taken lightly. That easy reality may not last. While the U.S. has long claimed Machias Seal Island, Canada also calls the uninhabited island 20 miles south of Machias its own. Almost two centuries ago, Canada erected a lighthouse with a foghorn there…and it still sends out lighthouse keepers. The Republican leader of the state House, Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham of Winter Harbor, last week urged President Donald Trump to defend “sovereignty over our waters,” referring to the little island in the Gulf of Maine. “We’ve been taken advantage of for too long,” Faulkingham said. Them’s fighting words.