July 29, 2025 — Maine’s plan to install GPS tracking devices on all lobster boats and monitor their exact location at all times went before the First Circuit Monday, but the court seemed unconcerned that this could be an invasion of the fishermen’s privacy.
“It makes sense to me,” U.S. Circuit Judge Seth Aframe said at oral argument.
The devices are required on all commercial lobster boats and record the boats’ location every minute at sea and every six hours on shore. They can’t be turned off, and they record all activity, even if the boat is being used for recreational or other non-commercial purposes. They’re Bluetooth-compatible and can collect audio information, although the state denies that it’s secretly recording anyone’s conversations.
Five lobstermen challenged the rule in court, claiming it was an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment. A trial judge upheld the Maine rule under existing precedent for administrative searches but found the issue so disturbing that he took the unusual step of recommending an appeal to the First Circuit.
The mariners immediately ran into choppy seas before the three-judge panel, however, as the judges credited the state’s claim that it needed to track lobster stocks and protect against interference with whales.
“The lobster stock is changing dramatically,” explained Sean Donahue of Donahue, Goldberg & Herzog in Washington, D.C., representing the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. “In New York, the catch is 3% of what it was 20 years earlier. In Maine, there’s a clear movement toward colder waters. The data require careful assessment, and this is critical.”