Saving Seafood

SCOTUS to consider lobsterman’s challenge to GPS tracking rule

June 10, 2026 — Vinalhaven lobsterman Frank Thompson’s case challenging the constitutionality of Maine Department of Marine Resources’ rule requiring 24/7 GPS tracking on federally licensed lobster boats was among the cases to be considered by the Supreme Court of the United States this week. However, SCOTUS will no longer decide whether to hear the case on June 11, as they have called for a response from the DMR. This information was shared in an email from Pacific Legal Foundation, the public-interest law firm representing Thompson, along with co-counsel from Holtzman Vogel.

In March, Thompson filed a 34-page petition for a writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to overturn the GPS tracking rule, arguing that it violates lobstermen’s Fourth Amendment rights protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. The DMR rule states that every licensed lobster boat must be equipped with a tracker, and the tracker must be fully operational even when boats are docked or not being used for commercial fishing purposes. Failure to comply can result in hefty fines and the loss of fishing licenses.

Read the full article at The Ellsworth American

MAINE: Collins, King raise ropeless gear concerns to federal policymakers

April 10, 2026 — U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Angus King (I-ME) are calling for continued engagement with Maine’s seafood industry stakeholders. In a letter to Eugenio Piñero Soler, assistant administrator for fisheries at the National Marine Fisheries Service, the senators urge NMFS to heed the well-founded concerns expressed by Maine’s lobstermen and fishermen regarding ropeless gear and to include them in any further regulatory discussions.

“Maine lobstermen’s concerns about ropeless gear are well-documented and deserve serious consideration. It is important to give full and meaningful weight to concerns raised by fishermen regarding ropeless/on-demand fishing gear as NMFS’s core strategy for North Atlantic right whale (NARW) conservation. We urge you to continue to explore other options, such as Dynamic Area Management with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, and strongly encourage you to continue engaging fishermen directly as your agency approaches new rulemaking on this issue,” the senators wrote.

Read the full article at the Mount Dessert Islander

Warming Waters in the Gulf of Maine May Affect the Future of Lobsters

April 6, 2026 — Curt Brown spent his childhood harvesting lobsters along the coast of Maine. As an adult, he went on to earn a Master of Science from the University of Maine, observing the very waters where he spent years fishing for the crustaceans.

With a rapidly changing climate, many researchers worry that Maine’s lobsters will eventually move north to colder waters. Brown isn’t so sure, though, seeing all of the forces affecting the ecosystem as highly complex. His studies in marine biology and policy, along with his continued work as a lobsterman, have helped him understand that the lobster industry depends upon various factors, some beyond man’s control.

Last year, the state of Maine’s lobster fisheries harvested 78.8 million pounds of lobsters, and according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), commercial harvesters earned $619 million.

Synonymous with the New England state, lobsters have a documented history in Maine that dates back to 1605. Recent studies, though, show that climate change and a shift in currents are warming up the local waters. In a now well-quoted 2015 study led by Andrew Pershing, researchers found that the surface temperature of the Gulf of Maine is warming 99 percent faster than the rest of the ocean.

Read the full article at Inside Climate News

MAINE: The Fragile Hope for Salmon Recovery in Maine

March 30, 2026 — On a bright March morning, Paul Christman hiked through deep snowdrifts on the bank of Avon Valley Brook in the western Maine mountains, leading a crew wearing waders and shouldering unwieldy backpacks.

One crew member carried a pack basket loaded with battered funnels crafted from stovepipes, duct tape and plumbing pipes. Another lugged a water pump. The last brought a cooler full of thousands of fertilized Atlantic salmon eggs.

The stream was mostly iced over, but Mr. Christman, a marine scientist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, found some open water on the brook, a tributary to the Sandy River.

“This is a really good spot,” Mr. Christman said. “The river is picking up velocity and shoving that water into the gravel, so we’re going to set up right here and do it.”

For 20 years, Mr. Christman has been working to restore salmon to this Sandy River watershed, where they were eradicated after dams built in the 1800s blocked their passage.

The strategy is producing thousands of juvenile salmon that migrate to the North Atlantic, but just a handful that return to Maine to spawn as adults.

Now, a $300 million project to remove or modify four dams downstream on the Kennebec River is infusing the work with new hope, possibly clearing the way for salmon to swim freely up to the Sandy River within a decade.

Hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon once flooded rivers in New England. For millenniums, the fish have been valued by Native Americans in the region as sustenance and cultural touchstones.

But marine survival rates for Atlantic salmon have plummeted over the last 35 years, for reasons that are complex and interwoven, including changing prey, shifting currents and warming waters.

More recently, they’ve been regarded by anglers as the “king of fish.” But by 2000, their numbers had fallen so low that federal regulators listed them for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Early recovery efforts focused on the last remaining populations of Atlantic salmon in the United States, all in Maine, in the Penobscot River, and the Mid-coast and Down East regions.

Read the full article at The New York Times

MAINE: Vinalhaven lobsterman petitions Supreme Court over GPS tracking mandate

March 20, 2026 — A Maine lobsterman is continuing his fight against a GPS tracking mandate, hoping to bring the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Frank Thompson, a fifth-generation lobsterman from Vinalhaven, and the Florida-based Pacific Legal Foundation jointly petitioned the Supreme Court this month to hear an appeal in his federal district court case.

Since late 2023, federally permitted lobster boats on the East Coast have been required to have a global positioning system (GPS) transmitter aboard at all times. The federal Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission enacted the mandate to collect data about fisheries stock and aid in conservation efforts, including for endangered whales.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources later adopted the mandate, which also collects data for “emerging ocean uses, and enforcement.”

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Maine lobster landings fall for fourth straight year

March 13, 2026 — Maine lobstermen hauled in fewer lobsters again in 2025, marking the fourth straight year of declining landings for the state’s most valuable fishery.

According to the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), fishermen landed 78.8 million pounds of lobster in 2025, down from more than 110 million pounds in 2021. The total marks the lowest harvest since 2028, though it remains higher than historic averages seen in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The value of the catch also dropped. State officials say the fishery brought in more than $461 million at the dock last year, a decline of over $75 million compared with the previous season.

“This combination of factors likely contributed to the decline from 2024 to 2025 in the lobster harvest of more than eight million pounds and a decrease in the overall value of more than $75 million,” said Carl Wilson, commissioner of the Maine DMR.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MAINE: Maine lobster landings down again after 2010s boom

March 10, 2026 — Maine lobster harvesters took over 21,000 fewer fishing trips last year, which likely contributed to another decline in total lobster landings.

That’s according to preliminary data released Friday from the Maine Department of Marine Resources

Maine’s lobsterman landed 78.8 million total pounds in 2025, which topped all other fisheries in the state, but is about seven million pounds less than the 2024 harvest.

DMR Commissioner Carl Wilson said the decline represents a return to normalcy after a major boom in the 2010s.

“78, 79 million pounds of lobster; that would have been absolutely celebrated as just amazing,” he said. “But when you had the spikes as high as we did in 2015, 2016… when you start to return to Earth, it hits a little bit different.”

Read the full article at Maine Public

Maine commercial fisheries topped $600M in 2025, led by the lobster industry

March 6, 2026 — Maine’s commercial fishermen earned more than $619 million in 2025, marking the 14th consecutive year the state’s fisheries have surpassed $500 million in value, according to preliminary data released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR).

Harvesters earned $619,053,489 last year, driven largely by the state’s lobster industry.

“Once again, Maine fishermen and sea farmers in 2025 delivered premium products sought by consumers around the world who value nutritious, sustainably harvested seafood,” Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement.

Lobster remained Maine’s most valuable fishery by far. Harvesters landed 78.8 million pounds of American lobster in 2025, with a total value of $461.4 million. The average boat price was $5.85 per pound, the third-highest on record.

Still, officials say inflation and other pressures affected the industry. DMR Commissioner Carl Wilson said that when adjusted for inflation, the overall value of the lobster fishery was closer to what harvesters earned in 2008.

Read the full article at News Center Maine

MAINE: Maine opens lottery for elver licenses

January 28, 2026 — Maine officials opened a lottery Monday giving 20 residents a chance to enter the state’s elver fishery before the 2026 season begins.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources began accepting lottery entries at noon Jan. 26. The process will run through 4:30 p.m. Feb. 20. Winners will then have the opportunity to apply for one of the available elver harvesting licenses ahead of the season, which is set to run from March 22 through June 7, or until the statewide quota is reached.

The U.S. elver fishery, which targets juvenile American eels, has existed since the 1970s but expanded significantly in the late 1990s, with Maine at the forefront. Until 2023, nearly all harvested elvers were sold to buyers in Asia, where they were raised to market size and then exported back to the U.S. and other countries. Recently, a small domestic market has been growing.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman