Judge rejects lawsuit filed by lobstermen over boat tracking devices

Seagulls surround the lobster boat Cora Pearl as it leaves Custom House Wharf in Portland in May 2023. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Federal judge dismissed The case of five Maine lobsters People who claim that the government’s rule requiring tracking devices on their boats violates their rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Although the judge dismissed the lawsuit against the commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, he encouraged lobstermen to appeal the decision because it raises “significant Fourth Amendment issues.”

In his decision, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock cited jurisdictional issues in the case. While he acknowledges that DMR’s rules for installing monitoring devices are clear, informative and have a “properly defined scope,” he also writes that lobstermen have “legitimate privacy concerns.”

“Lobstermen do not always fish from their boats,” Woodcock wrote in the decision. “They have their own lives. Although they use their boats to catch lobsters, they also use them to run personal errands, visit family and friends, and even make ends meet in some cases.”

But because the lobster industry has so many regulations, the state has the legal authority to inspect boats for compliance without a warrant, even through tracking devices, Woodcock wrote.

Although lobstermen are concerned about the privacy of data collected from tracking devices, Woodcock acknowledged that the data is important to protecting lobsters because they work in a “closely regulated industry.”

This story will be updated.

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