A bunch of lobster fishermen has sued fishing regulators in federal court docket, claiming that new digital monitoring necessities designed to protect rare whales are unconstitutional.
The brand new guidelines went into impact on Dec. 15 and require fishermen with federal lobster fishing permits to put in 24-hour digital monitoring units on their boats. The Maine Division of Marine Sources, which regulates fisheries in Maine, has promoted the brand new rule as a technique to gather higher information that may each profit the fishery and assist save the vanishing North Atlantic proper whale, which is weak to probably deadly entanglement in fishing gear.
5 lobstermen who’re members of a lobster fishing union filed their lawsuit in federal court docket final week. The fishermen mentioned they oppose the requirement that the monitoring units have to be operational no matter what the boat is getting used for on the time.
“The plaintiffs contend that minute-by-minute surveillance of Maine’s federally licensed lobster fleet is unconstitutional, unwarranted and unfair to Maine lobstermen, who have proven through the actions of generations of lobstering families that they are good stewards of the ocean ecosystems essential to their livelihoods,” mentioned Thimi Mina and Alfred Frawley IV, attorneys for the fishermen, in an announcement.
Fishing monitoring, whether or not by human staff or digital surveillance, has long been a contentious issue amongst business fishermen. Regulators defend the principles as vitally important to collect data used to handle fisheries, however many fishing teams view them as overreach.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Fee introduced the monitoring guidelines in 2022. The fee mentioned in paperwork on the time that “it is critical to gather and provide updated” information about business fishing to help the precise whales, which number less than 360.
The Atlantic States fee has not had time to totally assessment the fishermen’s grievance, a spokesperson for the fee mentioned. Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Division of Marine Sources, mentioned the info collected by the trackers would profit lobster fishermen in the long term.
“Data from the trackers is a critical component of the Atlantic states’ effort to ensure that the lobster industry is not burdened with management decisions based on assumptions derived from insufficient data,” Keliher mentioned.
The monitoring units had been issued to Maine lobstermen utilizing congressional funding, state officers mentioned. Not the entire lobster fishermen issued the trackers have put in them, mentioned Virginia OIsen, the Maine Lobstering Union’s political director. Olsen mentioned the court docket case, filed in U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Maine, doesn’t but have a listening to date.
