A group of lobster fishermen has sued fisheries regulators in federal court, arguing that new electronic monitoring requirements designed to protect rare whales violate the constitution.
The new rules went into effect on Dec. 15 and require fishermen with federal lobster fishing licenses to install 24-hour electronic tracking devices on their boats. The Maine Department of Marine Resources, which regulates fishing in Maine, will collect better data that will benefit the fishery and help save North Atlantic right whales, which are on the verge of extinction after fatal fishing entanglements. We are promoting this new rule as a method. Equipment.
Five lobster fishermen who are members of the Lobster Fishermen's Association filed the lawsuit in federal court last week. Fishermen said they object to the requirement that tracking devices must be activated regardless of what the boat is being used for at the time.
Coastal shrimp season ends Monday except for parts of eastern Louisiana.
“Plaintiffs allege that minute-by-minute monitoring of Maine's federally licensed lobster fleet is unconstitutional, unjust, and unfair to Maine's lobster farmers. “Through the actions of generations of lobster farming families, they have proven that they are good stewards of the marine ecosystem that is essential to their livelihood,” said Timi Mina, a lawyer for the fishermen. and Alfred Florey IV in a statement.
A lobster with its claws caught off Spruce Head, Maine, on August 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bucati, File)
Fisheries monitoring, whether by human monitoring or electronic monitoring, has long been a controversial topic among commercial fishermen. Although regulators have defended the rule as critical to collecting data used in fisheries management, many fishing organizations consider it an overreach.
The Atlantic Coast Marine Fisheries Commission has released monitoring rules for 2022. “It is important to collect and provide up-to-date data” on commercial fishing to help the fewer than 360 right whales, the commission said in a statement at the time.
A spokeswoman for the commission said the Atlantic Coast Commission did not have time to fully consider the fishermen's complaints. Patrick Kelliher, director of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said the data collected by the trackers will benefit lobster fishermen in the long run.
“Data from trackers is a key element of the Atlantic States' efforts to ensure the lobster industry is not burdened by business decisions based on assumptions derived from insufficient data,” Kelliher said.
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The tracking devices were given to Maine lobster fishermen using Congressional funds, state officials said. Virginia Orsen, political director of the Maine Lobster Union, said not all lobster fishermen who have been issued trackers have installed trackers. Olsen said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, does not yet have a hearing date set.
