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The Lobster Trap: The Global Fight for a Seafood on the Brink
A page-turning examination of how a multi-billion dollar industry creates enormous wealth and endless heartache, at a time when climate change, swings in the market, and greed are impacting fishermen’s livelihoods in new and dramatic ways.
Lobster has been a phenomenal success story, with a commercial fishery that has generated enormous wealth and fueled global appetites for one of the world’s most recognizable luxury foods. The great lobster boom that began in the 1990s has also led to violent fights over who has the right catch North America’s most valuable seafood, including for Canada’s Indigenous people who until now have been excluded from this industry. But overfishing and climate change are pushing lobster toward a cliff.
By 2050, it’s expected that warming ocean waters in the Gulf of Maine will cut lobster populations by two thirds. In places like Maine, the heart of America’s lobster industry, fishermen who don’t see a future in lobster are already selling their boats and becoming farmers, growing kelp and raising oysters. Unlike previous fishery collapses, there’s no other large-scale wild seafood species left that fishermen can switch to. The economic upheaval expected to follow the decline of lobster will devastate coastal communities in both Canada and the U.S. that have come to rely so much on it.
Greg Mercer takes readers on a global journey inside this precarious moment for the lobster industry, to show the money and heartache, and the danger and violence, tied up in it. Along the way, he explores lobster’s remarkable history, the gold-rush mentality that surrounds it, and examines what the future holds for this most precious shellfish.
Lobster has been a phenomenal success story, with a commercial fishery that has generated enormous wealth and fueled global appetites for one of the world’s most recognizable luxury foods. The great lobster boom that began in the 1990s has also led to violent fights over who has the right catch North America’s most valuable seafood, including for Canada’s Indigenous people who until now have been excluded from this industry. But overfishing and climate change are pushing lobster toward a cliff.
By 2050, it’s expected that warming ocean waters in the Gulf of Maine will cut lobster populations by two thirds. In places like Maine, the heart of America’s lobster industry, fishermen who don’t see a future in lobster are already selling their boats and becoming farmers, growing kelp and raising oysters. Unlike previous fishery collapses, there’s no other large-scale wild seafood species left that fishermen can switch to. The economic upheaval expected to follow the decline of lobster will devastate coastal communities in both Canada and the U.S. that have come to rely so much on it.
Greg Mercer takes readers on a global journey inside this precarious moment for the lobster industry, to show the money and heartache, and the danger and violence, tied up in it. Along the way, he explores lobster’s remarkable history, the gold-rush mentality that surrounds it, and examines what the future holds for this most precious shellfish.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published August 12, 2025
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262 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 25, 2025
Nice tour of the lobster industry in a journalistic style. An easy read. The format became a little repetitive for me after the first 100 pages or so. Despite finding the repetition a bit much, I have to admit it was effective for retention. Recommend for a book that you can put down and pick up again quite easily.
In terms of content, I was expecting it to/wish it had leaned a little heavier into the science of lobster (marine ecology, more in depth explanation of climate change impacts on population movement). While a couple chapters are dedicated to this, after reading this book lobster as an animal and a population are still amorphous and mysterious to me. Perhaps this reflects the lack of understanding and consensus in the scientific community, but I don't know.
This book was focused on the economic status, human stories, and political strife of the lobster fishery.
Review is for ARC.
In terms of content, I was expecting it to/wish it had leaned a little heavier into the science of lobster (marine ecology, more in depth explanation of climate change impacts on population movement). While a couple chapters are dedicated to this, after reading this book lobster as an animal and a population are still amorphous and mysterious to me. Perhaps this reflects the lack of understanding and consensus in the scientific community, but I don't know.
This book was focused on the economic status, human stories, and political strife of the lobster fishery.
Review is for ARC.
February 5, 2026
This was a very thoughtful and in-depth exploration of the challenges facing the lobster sector today. I was impressed by the diversity of regions covered. I was pretty familiar with the issues being raised in Southwest Nova Scotia, but was totally unfamiliar with the small blue lobster fishery in Ireland and the UK. The author threaded the needle appropriately by going in-depth on fishing practices and traditions, while not assuming the reader has too much knowledge. The book had the feeling of a very long-form Globe and Mail article. It really immerses the reader in the world of lobster, and shows the economic links and changing climate that make the fishery so lucrative and so fragile. The exploration of the Chinese market was probably the most interesting section of the book to me. I have met with a several of the people interviewed for the book, and gone to some of the places mentioned, which made it particularly interesting. I would highly recommend this book to business-minded people, as it gives the reader a strong understanding of the economic forecast for Nova Scotia's most significant industry.
September 12, 2025
3.5 ⭐️ Evert now and then when choosing my next non fiction read I pick a random book on a topic that I don’t know much about just to gain some knowledge. The Lobster Trap was that book this time, I don’t even eat lobster so this was a super random read.
I will say that it was quite informative but a bit relative at times. Some topics discussed were environmental concerns, geopolitical conflicts, Indigenous conflicts, changes in market value, restaurant trends, future for the industry and sustainability.
I will say that it was quite informative but a bit relative at times. Some topics discussed were environmental concerns, geopolitical conflicts, Indigenous conflicts, changes in market value, restaurant trends, future for the industry and sustainability.
September 5, 2025
Loved this book, so many perspectives and angles. A must read for anyone with a connection to Canada's East Coast.
August 12, 2025
I recently went to Maine and everyone told me lobster is $6 but it was $34. I was curious about the change in the market and I feel very informed after this book! I also enjoyed the multiple perspectives of the lobster industry.
September 29, 2025
“The Lobster Trap” is an overview of the lobster industry – mostly in North America but also globally, depicting it as an industry on the brink of collapse.
Lobster have been a part of my life from childhood. My interest in them started with my family camping trips to the East Coast of Canada and the United States in the early 1960s, to my parents bringing home live lobster for us to play with (we did this as very young kids) and then later cook. Did we really do this?
My interest in lobster continued when I worked in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and was introduced to a jovial lobsterman – Eddy Heafy, who took me out on his boat, “Lady Martha” where we pulled in “bugs” roasted them on the boat and light off fire-crachers like teenagers – although we were both in our 40s.
Lobsters have been something my children look forward to, and we make an annual pilgrimage to Petey’s Summertime Seafood on Rye Beach, NH, most summers.
I enjoyed the book. It filled me in on the current state of the lobster industry with climate change warming the North Atlantic and driving the temperature sensitive lobsters north from Maine to the Canadian Martime provinces.
I’ve also lived through the gluts and shortages of lobsters – with big increases due to the decline of cod along the Atlantic coast to shortages caused by the increasing global demand for North American Lobsters throughout Asia and particularly China, as well as Europe.
The book helped me better understand the state of the industry, the issue facing the industry – higher demand, more expense in harvesting, indigenous entry into the markets, rising water temperature, disease, and the difficulty in farming lobsters. It really can’t be done, at least economically, past the “larvae stage”.
While I liked the book it could have used a few maps, more quantitative data, and a more detailed view of the lifecycle of lobsters.
It was a good book, and could have been much better, with more research and a deeper review of the industry.
Lobster have been a part of my life from childhood. My interest in them started with my family camping trips to the East Coast of Canada and the United States in the early 1960s, to my parents bringing home live lobster for us to play with (we did this as very young kids) and then later cook. Did we really do this?
My interest in lobster continued when I worked in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and was introduced to a jovial lobsterman – Eddy Heafy, who took me out on his boat, “Lady Martha” where we pulled in “bugs” roasted them on the boat and light off fire-crachers like teenagers – although we were both in our 40s.
Lobsters have been something my children look forward to, and we make an annual pilgrimage to Petey’s Summertime Seafood on Rye Beach, NH, most summers.
I enjoyed the book. It filled me in on the current state of the lobster industry with climate change warming the North Atlantic and driving the temperature sensitive lobsters north from Maine to the Canadian Martime provinces.
I’ve also lived through the gluts and shortages of lobsters – with big increases due to the decline of cod along the Atlantic coast to shortages caused by the increasing global demand for North American Lobsters throughout Asia and particularly China, as well as Europe.
The book helped me better understand the state of the industry, the issue facing the industry – higher demand, more expense in harvesting, indigenous entry into the markets, rising water temperature, disease, and the difficulty in farming lobsters. It really can’t be done, at least economically, past the “larvae stage”.
While I liked the book it could have used a few maps, more quantitative data, and a more detailed view of the lifecycle of lobsters.
It was a good book, and could have been much better, with more research and a deeper review of the industry.
December 29, 2025
This is an insightful dive into the global lobster industry driven by the demand for North American lobster from growing middle class populations in Asia. Mercer weaves interviews with lobstermen, academics, community-members, and fishery organizations and sellers into well researched chapters that cover the socioeconomic, environmental, and policy dimensions of a declining industry as ocean waters continue to warm.
The repetitive and a few seemingly unnecessary asides and sentences that didn't seem to coincide with the preceding sentence or paragraph (this was an arc so perhaps the corrected version was slimmed down) and a lengthy read time (I set this aside for a few months to focus on school) made this read less enjoyable than I found the first few chapters early on.
That said, the final chapter offers a very concise overview and conclusion to the book. The reliance on interviews and first-hand accounts, including indigenous peoples, plays to Mercer's strengths as a reporter and provides a human face to conflicts arising in this industry. Indeed, some of the statements by lobstermen are deeply moving and melancholic as they wonder what the future will be for the industry, their children and communities, and what comes next.
An important read for those interested in marine affairs. Its strength is in its comprehensiveness and its unflinching examination of all sides, (domestic and international) economic, social, and political, of this issue.
The repetitive and a few seemingly unnecessary asides and sentences that didn't seem to coincide with the preceding sentence or paragraph (this was an arc so perhaps the corrected version was slimmed down) and a lengthy read time (I set this aside for a few months to focus on school) made this read less enjoyable than I found the first few chapters early on.
That said, the final chapter offers a very concise overview and conclusion to the book. The reliance on interviews and first-hand accounts, including indigenous peoples, plays to Mercer's strengths as a reporter and provides a human face to conflicts arising in this industry. Indeed, some of the statements by lobstermen are deeply moving and melancholic as they wonder what the future will be for the industry, their children and communities, and what comes next.
An important read for those interested in marine affairs. Its strength is in its comprehensiveness and its unflinching examination of all sides, (domestic and international) economic, social, and political, of this issue.
December 9, 2025
There is a song in Mary Poppins which paraphrased goes something like this: A forkful of lobster helps the information go down. This is an enormously thorough look at lobsters through a myriad of lenses: biological, business, political, global warming, the economics of fisherman and I’m just getting started. How he manages to combine this much research without getting dry is a bit of a miracle.
The author is careful to be fair to everyone involved. He doesn’t think there is one bad actor; in many ways, we are all bad actors and by showing all sides you realize how incredibly complex public policy can be. There are no easy answers.
I truly enjoyed this book. My only suggestion is to consider another word than countless; by the end of the book I would break out in a rash when I heard it. It is a minor quibble for a major book; it’s really worth the read.
The author is careful to be fair to everyone involved. He doesn’t think there is one bad actor; in many ways, we are all bad actors and by showing all sides you realize how incredibly complex public policy can be. There are no easy answers.
I truly enjoyed this book. My only suggestion is to consider another word than countless; by the end of the book I would break out in a rash when I heard it. It is a minor quibble for a major book; it’s really worth the read.
Read
December 30, 2025The world of lobster fishing revealed. Mercer defines it as a boom and bust industry. Unfortunately fishers tendency is to fish the crustacean to exhaustion. The profits are so high that people can not help themselves. Climate change which is warming ocean waters is the other bad news=lobsters live in very specific conditions and already much of Atlantic seaboard is too warm. Mercer also has several chapters on the nasty business of commercial fishers violently attacking Indigenous fishers for fishing out of season which they are allowed to do under Canadian law. The numbers do not support the view that Indigenous fishing is ruining the industry. It's just rank racism. Not very good news on this front.
August 23, 2025
Lobster, once a food for the “poor,” has been an incredible success story as an industry, generating wealth and fueling the culinary world as a “luxury” food. The boom that began in the 1990s has led to murders, fights and now trade battles, including the rights to fish in geographic areas. But as a result of changing climates and overfishing, increasingly there are few lobsters left to catch in America and few alternatives for wide-scale seafood that lobstermen can use to pivot their business. In this well-researched book, Mercer takes us on a global journey through this critical time in an industry which may never look the same.
October 1, 2025
I just don’t think I can finish this…I really appreciated the beginning and learned a lot about overfishing, the effect of climate on lobsters and the myth that has sort of persisted about “local” lobster here in New England, but it’s all from Canada.
However, the middle seems to be circling around and around. I get it - the water is warmer, lobster prices are rising, there are turf wars (I did find the chapter on the conflict between indigenous and white fishers extremely important and eye-opening). But it feels like it keeps repeating and not adding new information. And I still have a handful of chapters left. 😣
However, the middle seems to be circling around and around. I get it - the water is warmer, lobster prices are rising, there are turf wars (I did find the chapter on the conflict between indigenous and white fishers extremely important and eye-opening). But it feels like it keeps repeating and not adding new information. And I still have a handful of chapters left. 😣
December 26, 2025
I picked up this title based on a review I heard via CBC Radio.
The book has short, readable chapters, tons of ff. (22 pp. in fact, good index and extensive interviews.
The Lobster Trap is really three books in one -insights into the aboriginal fishery (deserves its own book, IMO), a glimpse into the dying American industry, and developments into the Atlantic Canadian lobster sector.
What is missing? A lot:
- there is no conclusion or look into the future;
- no analysis of fishers' incomes (lots of anecdotes BTW);
- no analysis of the impact of fisheries' policies on the sector.
Read it if you are interested in lots of fishers' yarns. You will have a feast.
The book has short, readable chapters, tons of ff. (22 pp. in fact, good index and extensive interviews.
The Lobster Trap is really three books in one -insights into the aboriginal fishery (deserves its own book, IMO), a glimpse into the dying American industry, and developments into the Atlantic Canadian lobster sector.
What is missing? A lot:
- there is no conclusion or look into the future;
- no analysis of fishers' incomes (lots of anecdotes BTW);
- no analysis of the impact of fisheries' policies on the sector.
Read it if you are interested in lots of fishers' yarns. You will have a feast.
September 28, 2025
Interestingly, I enjoyed the material in this for the most part.
I do not really believe he captured the issues between Indigenous and non Indigenous fishermen in the East very well. This is the norm in mainstream media every time they report on Indigenous rights to commercially fish in the off season. The fact that the rest of the book dealt with the environmental concerns around the future of the lobster industry, meaning that this portion of the book did not fit the theme of the rest of the book.
I do not really believe he captured the issues between Indigenous and non Indigenous fishermen in the East very well. This is the norm in mainstream media every time they report on Indigenous rights to commercially fish in the off season. The fact that the rest of the book dealt with the environmental concerns around the future of the lobster industry, meaning that this portion of the book did not fit the theme of the rest of the book.
January 1, 2026
The writing style was fairly accessible given all of the environmental and economic information to cover. I was unaware of the Indigenous lobster fishermen political angle, and I wonder if any governing body will provide the right incentives and safeties in place for lobsters to not be overfished to the point of ending whole livelihoods and ways of lives.
I was able to listen to an early audiobook from libro.fm. Thank you!
I was able to listen to an early audiobook from libro.fm. Thank you!
October 11, 2025
My 1 nonfiction read of the year, and it did not disappoint! As someone from Atlantic Canada, it's embarrassing how little I knew about the fishing industry and, more specifically, lobster. The author is also a journalist, and I felt his writing style kept me engaged and interested in learning more. The audiobook narrator was also excellent!
February 3, 2026
Perhaps the most poorly researched 20 pages I’ve read. I’m literally 20 pages in and can count at least 10 things where the author is flat out incorrect and I don’t mean his statements about over fishing, nope just general factual stuff like the line identifying the owner of the gear and stupid stuff like using sardines for bait. Come on be a serious writer
October 8, 2025
Fascinating. The lobster industry is a lot more complex than I once thought. Mercer explains it all very well. I recommend this book for anyone who loves the taste of lobster, and who cares about seafood sustainability. That's covers just about all of us I suppose.
October 20, 2025
Such an important book for anyone living on the east coast! The various perspectives and locations with similar, yet unique stories, are important to help understand the history and future of lobster fishing. Easy to read and understand, it won’t take long to get into and finished with this book.
August 19, 2025
Informative
January 7, 2026
Great book about sea bugs. Loved the chapter about Tignish. I know a whale from there.
March 2, 2026
Good info, but hella repetitive and not well organized
September 28, 2025
Good! Learnt a lot! A little repetitive. Loved to see Danny Moore quoted!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews