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

Appeals court rules against Maine lobster industry in lawsuit targeting Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation

October 13, 2026 — A U.S. Appeals Court has ruled against the Maine lobster industry in a lawsuit it brought against the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation (MBAF).

A coalition of Maine lobstermen, including Bean Maine Lobster Inc., the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Atwood Lobster LLC, and Bug Catcher Inc., had won a lawsuit against the MBAF over its decision to give the fishery a “red” rating in its seafood watch list. The aquarium foundation appealed that lawsuit, and now the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision, remanding it with instructions to dismiss the complaint entirely.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

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

Appeals Court Says Fishermen’s Claim in Lobster Defamation Suit Raises First Amendment Questions

August 5, 2026 — A federal appeals court signaled that it might not allow a lawsuit brought by fishing industry businesses and trade groups against a California aquarium to proceed because of the case’s potential impact on free speech.

The New England-based plaintiffs sued the Monterey Bay Aquarium for defamation after the aquarium’s Seafood Watch conservation program placed American and Canadian lobster on its do-not-eat “red list” in 2022. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is deciding whether the lawsuit can go forward.

One of the appellate judges, Judge Seth Aframe, said during oral arguments on July 27 that it doesn’t strike him as a defamation claim and that he finds the case troubling “from a First Amendment perspective.”

“The more you broaden the class of people that fall within this, the more it feels like everybody can sue,” Aframe said.

Seafood Watch placed lobster on its list of seafood to avoid because of the threat posed to rare whales, such as the North Atlantic right whale, by potential entanglement in fishing gear.

The lobster fishing industry, based mostly in Maine, has pushed back, saying the claim inaccurately portrays it as a threat to whales and constitutes defamation that has caused economic harm. It claims that the whales face greater threats from other fishing industries, including the Canadian snow crab fishery.

Conservation groups have long made the case that lobster and crab fisheries are both dangerous to the whales, and government agencies have acknowledged that entanglement in fishing gear is a critical threat to the giant animals.

The industry is sticking to that claim despite the judges’ comments during oral arguments, Kevin Lipson, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said Wednesday.

“Monterey Bay Aquarium in their Seafood Watch report didn’t disclose any of the countervailing evidence. In fact, they hid that evidence,” Lipson said.

Read the full article at U.S. News

Maine lobster industry lawsuit against Monterey Bay Aquarium caught in wider First Amendment debate

August 3, 2026 — A lawsuit launched by the Maine lobster industry against the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation appeared before the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals on 27 July, and judges were reportedly concerned about its impact to First Amendment protections.

A coalition of Maine lobstermen including Bean Maine Lobster Inc., the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Atwood Lobster LLC, and Bug Catcher Inc. sued the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation (MBAF) over its red listing of Maine-caught lobster. The listing was part of a complicated back-and-forth over the Maine lobster industry’s alleged impact on the North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource