Three Washington Dungeness crab fishermen are asking a state court to overturn a vessel monitoring program they say violates their constitutional rights by tracking their boats even when they are not fishing.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), representing crab boat captains Sarah Franey, Brent Young, and Mark Young, filed a motion seeking to invalidate the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's (WDFW) Electronic Monitoring Program. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 15.
According to a Nov. 3 NCLA news release, the program requires GPS tracking of Dungeness crab vessels throughout the nine-month fishing season whenever their crab pots remain in the water, regardless of whether the vessels are being used for commercial fishing or personal activities.
The fishermen argue that the requirement allows the state to monitor their movements during recreational fishing trips, transportation, and sightseeing. They also contend that WDFW can share vessel location data with law enforcement and other agencies without obtaining a warrant.
At the center of the lawsuit, Franey et al. v. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, is whether the monitoring requirements violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
NCLA argues that the program violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and similar protections under Washington law. The organization also claims that requiring fishermen to install and maintain monitoring equipment at their own expense constitutes an unconstitutional taking of private property.
The plaintiffs further contend that Washington's wildlife laws do not authorize WDFW to enforce the monitoring program through the threat of criminal penalties.
“There is no ‘fishing’ exception for illegal 24-hour surveillance regimes under the State and Federal Constitutions, and we hope this regime ends soon,” said John Vecchione, senior litigation counsel for NCLA.
The lawsuit, originally filed in November 2024, also questions whether the monitoring program provides meaningful benefits for crab population management or wildlife protection.
The Washington case follows a similar legal challenge in Maine, where lobsterman Frank Thompson and four other fishermen argued that federal vessel-tracking requirements violated their Fourth Amendment rights by monitoring their boats during personal trips.
As National Fisherman previously reported, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Thompson's appeal in October, leaving intact a First Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding the tracking requirement. Thompson has said he intends to continue fighting the regulation.
While the two cases involve different fisheries and regulatory programs, both raise questions about the extent to which government agencies can monitor commercial fishing vessels when they are being used for activities unrelated to fishing.
The Dec. 15 hearing could mark a significant step in the fishermen's effort to overturn the program. The allegations outlined in the motion have not been established by the court.
The case adds to ongoing legal challenges over government vessel tracking requirements and the extent to which fisheries regulators can monitor commercial fishing boats outside active fishing operations.
