Anger over stolen lobsters underscores Maine’s complicated relationship with tourism

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 5, 2026

In late July, Lindsay McDaniels, who makes a living hauling traps off Mount Desert Island, reported 30 hardshell and jumbo lobsters missing from her stash at a dock in Northeast Harbor. The marina’s surveillance footage showed two men walking off with her lobsters, which McDaniels had planned to sell for between $300 and $500 that same day. “It appears they are from away,” McDaniels wrote. The theft is an example of the sometimes tense relationship that locals have with summertime tourism, which brings millions of visitors and seasonal residents to the island to enjoy Acadia National Park and its surrounding beauty. Amid that beauty are communities of hard-working locals who live on the island year-round, many of whom rely on the working waterfront.