Maine lobstermen are suing to stop a new electronic tracking system they argue violates their constitutional rights.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, the five lobstermen, who are being supported by the Sustainable Maine Fishing Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Maine Lobstering Union, argue the rules present an “immediate and serious risk” to their constitutional right to privacy.
The lobstermen are being represented by the Portland law firm of McCloskey, Mina, Cunniff & Frawley LLC.
The new rules, which the Maine Department of Marine Resources began implementing on Dec. 15, 2023, require lobstermen with federal permits to install electronic trackers that monitor the movement of their boats 24/7.
The Maine Lobstering Union pleaded with the Department of Marine Resources, which is named in the lawsuit, to delay the requirements, likening them to “warrantless tracking.”
Some lobstermen worry that the data, if made public, could reveal fishing locations and trade secrets.
Regulators contend that the data will help them track interactions with endangered North Atlantic right whales and other marine species, as well as fishing patterns.
But the lobstermen maintain that the tracking is “unconstitutional, unwarranted and unfair,” saying that the industry has “proven through the actions of generations of lobstering families that they are good stewards of the ocean ecosystems essential to their livelihoods.”
The lobstermen noted that they support “dynamic management” and other efforts to protect the lobster fishery and marine wildlife, but oppose how the Department of Marine Resources proposes to “utilize, monitor and enforce” the tracking program.
Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher expressed hope in an interview with the Bangor Daily News last year that dynamic management could present an opportunity to avoid more stringent federal regulations designed to protect right whales.
In 2022, Congress imposed a six-year pause on new federal regulations to protect right whales in response to protests from Maine lobstermen.
“Unfortunately, the recent rules enacted by [the Department of Marine Resources] have conflated legitimate and salutary objectives of a monitoring program with what the Plaintiffs contend are patently unconstitutional encroachments on the personal and commercial privacy interests of Maine lobstering men and women,” the lobstermen said in a statement.
