Daniel Hawkins

Homarus americanus, commonly known as the American Lobster, generates the most valuable fishery in the United States. ut the American Lobster is renouncing its citizenship. As the Atlantic warms and it moves further north into colder Canadian waters, Homarus americanus has highlighted the last remaining territorial dispute between the two countries. As aquatic resources and ecosystems migrate in response to climate change, more people, communities, and countries will have to redraw or redefine sovereign boundaries. Traplines examines how the lobster has the agency to create and destroy coastal communities in the Gulf of Maine as it migrates. It asks: who is trapping who? And it explores how these trap dynamics could become useful tools in territorial conversations.