PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Supreme Court will decide later this month whether to hear a lobster fisherman’s challenge to a government requirement that boats use electronic tracking devices. That case could have broad consequences for the American commercial fishing industry.
Maine lobsterman Frank Thompson filed a federal lawsuit against the head of his state's marine resources department over a requirement that he install a GPS tracker on his boat
to keep his fishing license.
In 2023, the state, where lobster fishing is a critical and historic industry, required all federally permitted lobstermen to do so to comply with a new U.S. rule aimed at data collection.
Thompson asserted that the monitoring constituted unreasonable search and seizure, but a federal appeals court denied his claim last year. He appealed to the Supreme Court, which is set to review the claim on Sept. 28.
“The petition asks whether Maine can force lobstermen to carry government GPS trackers on their private boats, even when they are off the job,” said Matt Gilliam, Thompson's lead attorney. "We are hopeful that the court will grant review and address this important Fourth Amendment question.”
Many U.S. commercial fishermen are monitored at sea by human observers and electronic devices to collect data that regulators say is crucial to keeping the industry and fish populations sustainable and healthy. Fishing groups have used the courts over the years to try to curtail monitoring requirements with mixed results. Authorities have said the lobster boat monitoring program is important to improve understanding of the valuable crustacean's population at a time when it appears to be declining in New England.
A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Marine Resources declined to comment on Monday. Carl Wilson, the department's commissioner, said last year that the data from lobster boats is important to “mitigate economic harm to the industry” as well as to inform regulations.
Conservation groups have opposed efforts to scale back monitoring fishing boats at sea, which they see as important to protecting the broader ocean.
“Efforts to overturn a federal appeals court ruling don’t change the fact that New England’s lobster population has declined and fishery managers urgently need reliable and detailed data to respond to the complex issues facing our ocean," said Erica Fuller, senior counsel with Conservation Law Foundation.
The U.S. lobster industry is based mostly in Maine, where fishermen caught more than 78 million pounds (35.4 million kilograms) of the crustaceans last year. That was on par with the industry's typical annual catch in the 2000s but a sharp decline from a decade ago, when catches routinely topped 120 million pounds (54.4 million kilograms) a year.
