For decades, the legal status of puffin-friendly Machias Seal Island has been taken lightly. That easy reality may not last.

While the U.S. has long claimed Machias Seal Island, Canada also calls the uninhabited island 20 miles south of Machias its own. Almost two centuries ago, Canada erected a lighthouse with a foghorn there … and it still sends out lighthouse keepers.

The Republican leader of the state House, Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham of Winter Harbor, last week urged President Donald Trump to defend “sovereignty over our waters,” referring to the little island in the Gulf of Maine. “We’ve been taken advantage of for too long,” Faulkingham said.

Them’s fighting words.

Uncertainty over the international border extends to the surrounding waters, creating a so-called “gray zone” that is, importantly, chock full of lobsters.

Regrettably, neither the lobsters nor the puffins get any say over which country should govern them, though the puffins are protected by both nations, meaning they have it a lot better than their bottom-dwelling, pot-destined counterparts..

For generations, control of Machias Seal has been an argument mostly among diplomats and geographers who tracked down historic maps and dusty treaties to fuel their debate.

In practice, the two countries mostly treated one another’s interest in the island with respect — if not agreement.

During World War I, for example, Canada approved a U.S. initiative to put a handful of Marines on the island to help protect the Bay of Fundy from German submarines.

The problem now is that for the first time in more than 150 years, the U.S. government, or at least Trump, is coveting Canada. The president routinely refers to it as a future 51st state. If he can’t get all of it, he might well decide to snatch some of it.

Last month, Trump mentioned the 110-square-mile gray zone during a discussion about fishing when he cited a disputed area off the coast of Maine, sniffing, “Canada fishes there and we’re not allowed to.”

In a May 28 letter to Trump, Faulkingham said the 277-square-mile gray zone was mostly “fished by American lobstermen” until the population exploded there in the past couple of decades. That led to intensifying “Canadian encroachment,” in Faulkingham’s words.

Faulkingham told Trump that as the government tries “to engage the Canadian government in pursuit of a fair and equitable relationship, I respectfully urge you to advocate for Maine’s lobster industry by defending our sovereign rights over our waters in the so-called gray zone. Ensuring continued access to these waters is vital to the future of our coastal communities and our way of life.”

The last time a territorial dispute broke out along Maine’s border, during the infamous Aroostook War in 1839, things got more than a little silly. British surveyors trying to pin down the line got so drunk that they mapped the wrong river as tensions rose.

Then came the Battle of Caribou, where some Maine woodcutters spotted their Canadian counterparts cutting trees they considered American property. The two parties faced off, yelled at each other and pulled out guns.

Suddenly, though, a black bear is said to have attacked three of the Canadians, who shot it. Thinking they were the target, the Mainers opened fire as the intruders raced away. Only the bear took a bullet.

The Battle of Machias Seal Island? Let’s hope it doesn’t come to pass. We need to keep the puffins safe.