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

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — 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.

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