March 11, 2023 — The vessel monitoring system rule for Gulf of Mexico charter fishing vessels is in abeyance, after being set aside in a ruling from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals – at least while the National Marine Fisheries Service considers any next moves.
The National Civil Liberties Alliance filed a court challenge to NMFS’ electronic monitoring rule that required for-hire operators with federal charter and headboat permits to buy new global positioning system equipment for their boats to transmit vessel locations.
Among other details, the rule published in July 2020 specified that “if no fish are landed, the electronic fishing report must be submitted within 30 minutes after the completion of the fishing trip. This final rule also requires a Gulf for-hire vessel owner or operator to notify NMFS prior to departing for any trip and declare whether they are departing on a for-hire trip or on another trip type.
“If the vessel will be operating as a charter vessel or headboat during the specified trip, the vessel owner or operator must also report details of the trip’s expected completion. Lastly, this final rule requires that a Gulf for-hire vessel owner or operator use NMFS-approved hardware and software with global positioning system (GPS) location capabilities that, at a minimum, archive vessel position data during a trip for subsequent transmission to NMFS.”