Lindsay McDaniels lost hundreds of dollars in catch when two men took lobsters from her crate in Northeast Harbor, fueling an online backlash among islanders.
Aug 05, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Restaurant Barn.
By Sabrina Martin/BDN
NORTHEAST HARBOR—In late July, Lindsay McDaniels, a lobsterer who makes a living hauling traps off Mount Desert Island, often with her 16-year-old daughter on board, 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, who is known within the fishing community as “Lobsta Lindsay,” had planned to sell for between $300 and $500 that same day.
“It appears they are from away,” McDaniels wrote in a Facebook post that went viral among MDI lobstermen.
The footage showed a pair of middle-aged men circling various crates along two docks at the Northeast Harbor Marina, one with commercial boats and the other with million-dollar yachts. The theft occurred in the late afternoon of July 24.
The theft is a possible 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.
Many islanders directly benefit from the surge in seasonal activity every year — whether they’re a lobsterman or shop owner — but they’re also left to tolerate what comes with living in a region that is overrun with newcomers every season and people who may be unfamiliar with, or uninterested in, local norms.
At first, McDaniels, who later reported the theft to the Mount Desert Police Department, thought the men may have mistaken her lobsters for those they’d purchased from another fisherman. But she’s not so convinced of that now.
“I have spoken with many fishermen to see if they got the wrong lobsters, [and] that has not been the case,” McDaniels wrote, adding that the men made a phone call while searching the docks. “Either way, if they had it arranged or not, they should have made sure it was the right crate.”
McDaniels, who sells most of her lobsters at Beal’s Lobster Pier in Southwest Harbor, wondered if the pair were friends of summer residents because their black SUV came from a neighborhood where seasonal residents live, not from the direction where day visitors tend to go. The men also carried their own laundry baskets, not often found on tourists, to transport the lobsters.
Several circulating Facebook posts about the incident ignited anger among locals.
“I hope the lobstermen don’t find them first,” one Facebook user wrote.
Another user responded to that comment: “I hope the lobstermen do find them first.”
“Good way to wind up [as] lobster bait,” a third commenter wrote.
The matter remains under investigation and the pair have not yet been identified, Mount Desert Police Chief Dave Kerns said, noting that the security camera footage suggests the lobsters likely were taken from McDaniels’ crate by mistake. Maine Marine Patrol is also involved in the matter, but Jeff Nichols, a spokesperson for the Department of Marine Resources, said local police were leading the investigation.
But even if the lobsters were accidentally taken from the wrong fisherman, McDaniels was still left scrambling on the evening of July 24, with pending orders and missing catch. She weathered windy conditions during a last-minute fishing trip to replace the lobsters.
McDaniels, who is originally from Minnesota but settled on MDI in the early 2000s after attending College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, has worked on many boats, out of many harbors, she said, adding that she’s “earned respect from local fishermen.”
On Saturday morning, shortly after hauling a trap in Northeast Harbor, a recreational tender leaving the marina slipped through a narrow waterway between McDaniels’ fishing boat and a moored yacht. McDaniels had to maneuver around the tender to ensure a safe passing.
“Can’t they tell I’m working?” McDaniels asked disapprovingly.
This story appears through a media partnership with the Bangor Daily News.
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