Climate change, overfishing, and other anthropogenic drivers are forcing marine resource users and decision makers to adapt—often rapidly. In this article we introduce the concept of pathways to rapid adaptation to crisis events to bring attention to the double-edged role that institutions play in simultaneously enabling and constraining swift responses to emerging crises. To develop this concept, we draw on empirical evidence from a case study of the iconic Maine lobster (Homarus americanus) industry. In the Gulf of Maine, the availability of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) stock, a key source of bait in the Maine lobster industry, declined sharply. We investigate the patterns of bait use in the fishery over an 18-year period (2002–2019) and how the lobster industry was able to abruptly adapt to the decline of locally-sourced herring in 2019 that came to be called the bait crisis. We found that adaptation strategies to the crisis were diverse, largely uncoordinated, and imperfectly aligned, but ultimately led to a system-level shift towards a more diverse and globalized bait supply. This shift was enabled by existing institutions and hastened an evolution in the bait system that was already underway, as opposed to leading to system transformation. We suggest that further attention to raceways may be useful in understanding how and, in particular, why marine resource users and coastal communities adapt in particular ways in the face of shocks and crises.

气候变化、过度捕捞和其他人为驱动因素正在迫使海洋资源使用者和决策者做出适应——而且往往是迅速适应。在本文中，我们介绍了快速适应危机事件路径的概念，以引起人们对机构在同时促进和限制对新兴危机的快速反应方面所发挥的双刃作用的关注。为了发展这个概念，我们借鉴了标志性缅因州龙虾（美洲白鹤）产业案例研究的经验证据。在缅因湾，缅因州龙虾产业的主要饵料来源——大西洋鲱鱼（ Clupea harengus ）的供应量急剧下降。我们调查了 18 年期间（2002 年至 2019 年）渔业中饵料的使用模式，以及龙虾产业如何能够突然适应 2019 年当地鲱鱼数量的减少（后来被称为饵料危机）。我们发现，针对危机的适应策略多种多样，很大程度上不协调且不完全一致，但最终导致系统层面转向更加多样化和全球化的诱饵供应。这种转变是由现有机构促成的，并加速了已经在进行的诱饵系统的演变，而不是导致系统转型。我们建议，进一步关注水道可能有助于了解海洋资源使用者和沿海社区在面对冲击和危机时如何、特别是为何以特定方式适应。