BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 4, 2025
The Trump administration is insisting that a small island off Maine’s coast belongs to the United States even though Canada has long claimed it and operates a lighthouse there. Machias Seal Island is roughly 12 miles southeast of the Down East fishing harbor of Cutler and roughly the same distance southwest of Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick. It sits in a long-disputed 280-square-mile section of the Gulf of Maine known as the “gray zone” that has been getting renewed attention as rhetoric between the U.S. and Canada has heated up with Trump back in the White House. The gray zone has been increasingly prized by fishermen from both countries as lobster populations have grown there, and some Maine lobstermen are now pressing Trump to make progress in resolving the dispute in their favor.