Everyday adaptation in a gilded trap: Risk-taking and resilience in Maine's lobster fishery.

Demographic and economic factors influence risk-taking in Maine's lobster fishery, with men, mid-career harvesters, and larger business captains more likely to fish in high-risk conditions.

• Why it matters: Understanding how fishers adapt within constrained social-ecological systems is crucial as ecological simplification limits flexibility, yet little research has explored these adaptation strategies.
• What they did: Analyzing 307,000 observations from 3,515 harvesters over 13 years using a generalized linear mixed-effects model, the study examined how sociodemographic and economic factors shape risky fishing behavior.
• The result: Despite expectations, risk-taking declined over time, with harvesters relying on short- and medium-term adjustments within existing systems, supported by shifts in fleet composition and licensing, indicating overlooked flexibility in constrained systems.