December 2, 2021 — If NOAA gets its way, Allen Walburn will soon be forced to keep electronic monitors on his three charter fishing boats to follow their every move, a requirement that he likens to criminal defendants forced to wear ankle bracelets.
“I don’t want people knowing where I’m at,” said Walburn, 71, who has been running his charter fishing business in Naples, Fla., since 1978.
In a key test of NOAA’s surveillance powers, Walburn and a group of other charter fishermen from the Gulf of Mexico have gone to court to block the proposed rule, asking a federal judge in Louisiana to declare it unconstitutional and an invasion of their privacy.
In court briefs, NOAA argued that its proposal to require electronic tracking in the Gulf should be allowed under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the nation’s premier fishing law passed by Congress in 1976.
The law, which Congress is now considering reauthorizing, requires NOAA to devise plans to prevent overfishing and protect the long-term health of fish populations. The agency argues that electronic monitoring makes data collection more timely, accurate and cost-efficient than other alternatives.