Tobias Russell’s Sept. 3 op-ed, “Government 24/7 surveillance of lobster boats? That’s going overboard,” discussed Frank Thompson’s ongoing legal fight against the tracking mandate in federal court. The Conservation Law Foundation submitted an amicus brief on the case in question on its and Ocean Conservancy’s behalf.
The op-ed did not address why fishing vessel trackers exist in the first place: Lobsters and other wild-caught seafood are a public resource belonging to all Americans, whether you fish for them yourself or just love a good lobster roll.
And just as monitoring emissions from power plants helps protect the air we breathe, monitoring the fishing industry and collecting basic data are crucial to protecting the ocean and preventing overfishing. Vessel monitoring systems have been used in nearly every other fishery in federal waters for years. The “black box” on vessels merely reports the location of a boat and knows far less about the owner than their cellphone does.
Right now, that data is needed more than ever. Lobsters are facing record-high ocean temperatures that are changing where they can survive and how well they reproduce. As the population shifts, it’s important to know where they are caught so lobstermen can understand those changes, avoid overfishing and keep the fishery healthy and productive — both for the people working today and for the next generation.
Meredith Moore, Washington
The writer is senior director of fish conservation at Ocean Conservancy.
Tobias Russell’s use of the phrase “government tracking system” might suggest something sinister. In reality, the tracking system is similar to the vessel monitoring systems that have been used since the 1990s. These are common and vital tools to prevent illegal fishing. In this case, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission mandated the use of the trackers to regulate the lobster fishery.
Yes, the trackers cannot be turned off, but that can easily be explained by consistent misuse of the monitoring systems by fisheries across the world. Because Maine lobstermen are subject to specified seasonal and weekend restrictions, it is important that regulators know when and where vessels are in the water. Otherwise, valuable lobster resources may be subject to illegal fishing and further depleted.
Already, the lobster fishery is subject to overfishing in the Gulf of Maine. In the southern part of the lobster’s range, lobsters have “declined since the late 1990s to record low levels,” according to a 2024 review of the lobster management plan.
Fisheries are among the most regulated industries in the world; much of the regulation is intended to prevent illegal fishing and overfishing. The estimated annual impact of illegal fishing is between $26 billion and $50 billion globally. The trackers in question are just one of a number of tools critical for preventing illegal fishing. There is nothing sinister about it. It’s just good fisheries management.
Chris Wold, Portland, Oregon
The writer is a professor of ocean and coastal law at Lewis & Clark Law School.
Do you know where your kids are?
The contrast in worldviews in the Sept. 7 Metro article “A 5-year-old walked to a pond alone. His mom was arrested for neglect,” and the Sept. 7 online Style article “It’s 10 p.m., and your kids want to know where you are” is fascinating.
Karyann Parkinson allowed her 5-year-old son, Sam, to walk alone to a nearby neighborhood pond and was charged and convicted last month of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The Post reported that Parkinson “wants her children to know ‘the world’s a good place’ and that they can do things on their own.”
Abbie Pruitt and her college-aged daughter Kylie use phone apps to track each other’s movements because, as Kylie explained, “anything could happen to anybody on any day.”
Is the world “a good place” where a person “can do things on their own,” or a scary place where “anything could happen to anybody on any day”? Your answer may depend on how you were raised. But one thing is certain — you won’t get prosecuted for believing the latter.
Joseph A. Capone, Oakton
When my son was 5, he became best friends with another 5-year-old who lived at the opposite end of our neighborhood. They discovered a shortcut between the two homes through some undeveloped woods.
The neighbor’s mother and I saw no harm in allowing our sons to go back and forth independently. Of course, this was in 1974. But the point is that we used common sense. Our kids were responsible and could be trusted to navigate the shortcut. They could also be trusted to tell us if they felt they didn’t want to walk independently anymore.
If Karyann Parkinson’s son is anything like my son and his friend, and she knows her neighborhood, why shouldn’t we trust her judgment?
Phoebe Huang, Stonington, Connecticut
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