Saving Seafood

Vessel tracking fight ‘ain’t over yet’ after Supreme Court denial

October 19, 2026 — Vinalhaven lobsterman Frank Thompson says his fight against Maine’s vessel-tracking requirement is not over, despite the U.S. Supreme Court declining earlier this month to hear his Fourth Amendment challenge.

Thompson, a fifth-generation lobsterman who fishes from the island community of Vinalhaven, told Fox News that he intends to continue challenging a requirement that electronically tracks federally permitted lobster vessels, including when they are underway for personal use.

“I just told myself, I said, ‘Well, it ain’t over yet,’” Thompson told Fox after learning the Supreme Court had declined his petition.

As National Fisherman previously reported, the Supreme Court declined on Oct. 5 to review Thompson’s case, leaving intact a First Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the vessel-tracking requirement. Thompson had argued that requiring a GPS device aboard his privately owned vessel amounted to an unreasonable search in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The case centered in part on the fact that tracking continues when a vessel is underway but is not being used for commercial fishing. That distinction is particularly important in Maine island communities, where fishing vessels can also serve as transportation to the mainland for errands, appointments, and other personal trips.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Supreme Court declines to hear case of a lobster fisherman who opposes boat tracking

October 15, 2026 — The Supreme Court has declined to hear the case of a lobster fisherman who alleged the government requiring commercial fishing boats to use electronic tracking devices amounts to unreasonable search and seizure.

Maine lobster fisherman Frank Thompson sued after his state began requiring all federally permitted lobstermen to install GPS trackers on their boats to collect data that will help manage the industry. Thompson appealed to the high court after losing at the appeals court level.

The Supreme Court formally denied Thompson’s petition on Oct. 5. The decision allows the state to collect “critically important” data, said Carl Wilson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full article at ABC News

How a lobsterman’s privacy fight reached SCOTUS — and could ripple far beyond the water: ‘Ain’t over yet’

October 12, 2026 — One Maine lobsterman isn’t ready to give up after the Supreme Court declined to hear his challenge to a GPS vessel-tracking requirement Monday, fearing it threatens a way of life passed down for generations and could ripple across other industries.

For decades, fifth-generation lobsterman Frank Thompson has driven his boat from Vinalhaven, a small island off the Maine coast, into deeper waters to set traps and haul in lobsters. Now, he says a GPS tracking mandate has turned his boat into a government-issued 24/7 “ankle bracelet,” sparking a years-long legal battle over constant surveillance and Fourth Amendment rights.

“This is totally against the Fourth Amendment, and somebody’s got to hear it one way or another,” Thompson told Fox News Digital. “This black box that they’re putting aboard the boat is not legal, in my mind, and I’m not a criminal.”

Thompson, who also owns Fox Island Lobster Company with his wife and two sons, was out fishing earlier this month when one of his sons texted him, letting him know the Supreme Court had declined his petition to hear the case and left in place a First Circuit ruling that said the GPS tracking requirement did not violate the Fourth Amendment because lobstering is a closely regulated industry.

“I just told myself, I said, ‘Well, it ain’t over yet,’” he said.

The mandate, requiring a small electronic box to be installed aboard federally licensed lobster boats in Maine, has flipped Thompson’s life upside down, he said.

Read the full article at Fox News

Justices decline to take up Maine boat monitor case

October 7, 2026 — The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a lawsuit challenging a Maine rule requiring commercial lobstermen to use electronic vessel tracking systems.

In an unwritten decision, the high court denied lobsterman Frank Thompson’s petition for a writ of certiorari to consider a case against the Maine Department of Marine Resources, claiming that GPS monitoring of private boats violates Fourth Amendment protections. The decision effectively ends the long-running legal fight, upholding a previous federal appeals court ruling rejecting the lawsuit.

Thompson, who was represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, had claimed the 24/7 surveillance unfairly targets Maine’s federally licensed lobster fleet.

Read the full article at The Center Square

US Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to Maine lobster boat tracking rule

October 6, 2026 — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case challenging Maine’s requirement that certain commercial lobstermen use electronic vessel tracking devices, leaving in place a lower court ruling that upheld the program.

The case was brought by Frank Thompson, a Maine lobsterman who argued the state’s tracking requirement violates the Fourth Amendment by forcing fishermen to submit to continuous GPS monitoring as a condition of keeping their fishing licenses.

Read the full article at News Center Maine

Maine lobsterman takes fight against boat trackers to Supreme Court

September 21, 2026 — A Maine lobsterman is taking his fight against lobster and crab fishing boat trackers to the Supreme Court in a case that could have implications for the state’s fishing industry.

Frank Thompson, a fifth-generation lobsterman from near Vinalhaven, Maine, filed a federal lawsuit Carl Wilson, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, in 2023 over a Maine law complying with a federal mandate that requires lobstermen to install and continuously operate GPS trackers on their ships to keep their license.

A district court dismissed his case in 2023, as did an appeals court in 2025. He has now appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which is set to take it up on Sept. 28.

Lobsterman’s tracking fight heads to Supreme Court

September 16, 2026 — For commercial fishermen accustomed to vessel monitoring, observers and other data requirements, a Maine lobsterman’s case headed to the U.S. Supreme Court raises a more fundamental question: How far can government monitoring follow a fisherman when he isn’t fishing?

The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider Frank Thompson’s petition Sept. 28 in a challenge to electronic tracking requirements for federally permitted lobster vessels.

Thompson, a fifth-generation lobsterman from Vinalhaven, Maine, argues that requiring a GPS tracking device aboard his privately owned vessel amounts to an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment. His challenge focuses particularly on the requirement that the vessel continue transmitting its location while underway, including when it is being used for something other than lobstering.

“The petition asks whether Maine can force lobstermen to carry government GPS trackers on their private boats, even when they are off the job,” Matt Gilliam, Thompson’s lead attorney, told ABC News. “We are hopeful that the court will grant review and address this important Fourth Amendment question.”

The tracking requirement went into effect in 2023 for federally permitted American lobster vessels from Maine to Virginia. The devices transmit a vessel’s location every minute while it is at sea.

For some Maine fishermen, however, a fishing boat is not used exclusively for fishing.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Supreme Court to consider Maine lobsterman’s GPS tracking challenge later this month

September 16, 2026 — A longtime Maine lobsterman is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his challenge to a requirement that federally permitted lobster boats carry electronic tracking devices.

Frank Thompson argues that the tracking requirement violates the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches.

The Supreme Court has distributed the petition for its Sept. 28 conference, where the justices are expected to consider whether to take up the case. The conference is not an oral argument, and the court has not agreed to hear the case.

Thompson, a fifth-generation lobsterman from Vinalhaven, argues that the tracking requirement goes too far because the device remains on his private boat even when he’s not lobstering.

Maine requires state license holders who also hold certain federal lobster permits to have an electronic tracker on their boats while operating. The device records the time and location of the vessel once per minute while its moving and every six hours while it is tied up, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Maine DMR says that the data are intended to provide more detailed information about fishing activity and stock assessments that can help with fisheries management and protected species issues.

Read the full article at WMTW

Supreme Court to decide whether to hear Maine lobsterman’s challenge to GPS boat tracker requirement

September 14, 2026 — The Supreme Court will decide later this month whether to hear a lobster fisherman’s challenge to a government requirement that boats use electronic tracking devices. That case could have broad consequences for the American commercial fishing industry.

Maine lobsterman Frank Thompson filed a federal lawsuit against the head of his state’s marine resources department over a requirement that he install a GPS tracker on his boat to keep his fishing license.

In 2023, the state, where lobster fishing is a critical and historic industry, required all federally permitted lobstermen to do so to comply with a new U.S. rule aimed at data collection.

Thompson asserted that the monitoring constituted unreasonable search and seizure, but a federal appeals court denied his claim last year. He appealed to the Supreme Court, which is set to review the claim on Sept. 28.

Read the full article at the Associated Press