Portland Fishermen Sue to Block Laws Designed to Help Save Rare Whale

A group of lobster fishermen has sued fishing regulators in federal court, claiming that new electronic monitoring requirements designed to protect rare whales are unconstitutional.

The new rules went into effect in December and require fishermen with federal lobster fishing permits to install 24-hour electronic tracking devices on their boats.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources, which regulates fisheries in Maine, has promoted the new rule as a way to collect better data that can both benefit the fishery and help save the vanishing North Atlantic right whale, which is vulnerable to potentially lethal entanglement in fishing gear.