Tag Archives: Joel Strout

Lobstermen Sue State Agency for Mandating Installation of 24-Hour Electronic Location Monitoring System on Their Boats

A group of five Maine lobstermen are suing Maine Department of Marine Fisheries (MDMR) Commissioner Patrick Keliher over new rules mandating that all federally permitted lobster boats be equipped with a 24-hour electronic location monitoring system. These mandated devices — provided by the MDMR — identify a vessel’s location every sixty seconds while in motion and once every six hours when stationary. Using one of these devices, a boat’s position is able to be accurately determined within 100 meters, or 328.1 feet. According to the lobstermen, this new requirement violates the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, as they allege that it jeopardizes their Constitutionally protected rights to privacy and due process. more, >>click to read<< 11:20

About 70 frustrated fishermen tell feds at a hearing in Machias that Canada, not Maine, is mostly to blame.

About 70 fishermen came to the first fisheries service public meeting in Maine on the latest round of lobster rule changes being considered to protect the endangered whales. They expressed safety fears and their mounting frustration. The state’s $485 million-a-year lobster industry is facing a federal mandate to lower the number of buoy lines in the Gulf of Maine by 50 percent to protect right whales.,,, >click to read< 12:09