PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A bunch of lobster fishermen has sued fishing regulators in federal court docket, claiming that new digital monitoring necessities designed to defend uncommon 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 acquire 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 should 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’ve confirmed by the actions of generations of lobstering households that they’re good stewards of the ocean ecosystems important to their livelihoods,” mentioned Thimi Mina and Alfred Frawley IV, attorneys for the fishermen, in a press release.
Fishing monitoring, whether or not by human employees or digital surveillance, has lengthy been a contentious subject amongst industrial fishermen. Regulators defend the foundations as vitally necessary to gather information 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’s essential to collect and supply up to date” information about industrial fishing to assist the fitting whales, which quantity lower than 360.
The Atlantic States fee has not had time to completely overview the fishermen’s grievance, a spokesperson for the fee mentioned. Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Division of Marine Sources, mentioned the information collected by the trackers would profit lobster fishermen in the long term.
“Information from the trackers is a essential part of the Atlantic states’ effort to make sure that the lobster trade shouldn’t be burdened with administration selections based mostly on assumptions derived from inadequate information,” 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.
