Chapter 130

Section 43. Between March first and October thirty-first, both dates inclusive, in any year, the director may authorize the taking or possession of egg-bearing lobsters by any person licensed under section thirty-eight to catch or take lobsters and edible crabs, upon the conditio…

Section 44. Whoever sells, or offers for sale, or has in possession for a period longer than is necessary for immediate measuring, or for any purpose other than legally disposing of same, a lobster measuring in length less than the minimum size prescribed by this section, alive o…

Section 44A. The director may, by regulation approved by the marine fisheries advisory commission and promulgated pursuant to chapter thirty A, establish a program to protect V–notched lobsters. For purposes of this section, the term ''V–notched lobster'' means a female egg-beari…

Section 44B. No commercial fishing vessel landing lobsters taken by any method other than by pots or traps shall land for the purpose of sale or distribution any lobsters or any part thereof at any location within the jurisdiction of the commonwealth in excess of one hundred lobs…

Section 47. All barrels, boxes or other containers containing lobsters, or lobster meat after the same has been taken from the shell, shall, before being delivered to any carrier, be marked by the shipper in a plain and legible manner on the outside thereof ''Lobsters'' or ''Lobs…

Section 48. In case of seizure by any duly authorized officer of any lobsters or lobster meat contained in any barrel, box or other container which is not marked as provided in section forty-seven, or of any lobster measuring less than the length prescribed by section forty-four,…

Section 49. No carrier shall knowingly receive or carry from place to place any lobster or lobster meat in barrels, boxes or other containers not marked as provided in section 47.

Section 4A. The director, his assistants, an environmental police officer or deputy environmental police officer or a member of the state police may conduct an administrative inspection in accordance with the provisions of this section of commercial fishing vessels and wholesale …

Section 5. The director and the director of the division of fisheries and wildlife, shall from time to time determine and establish the jurisdictional boundaries of each agency in rivers and streams flowing into the sea. Said jurisdictional boundaries may be based upon existing, …

Section 50. When any lobster or lobster meat is seized for the violation of any provision of section forty-seven, the officer making the seizure shall immediately notify the shipper thereof, if known, and shall proceed to enforce the forfeiture of such lobsters as he is not requi…

Section 51. No person shall sell, or represent for the purpose of sale, any lobster as a native lobster unless the same shall have been originally caught or taken in the coastal waters; nor shall any person so sell, or represent for the purpose of sale, any crustacean as a lobste…

Section 51A. No retail establishment or person shall sell or represent for the purpose of sale, any item as crabmeat unless the same is from crustaceans of any species of crab, so-called. A retail establishment or person selling a product which contains crabmeat in any proportion…

Section 52. The selectmen of a town bordering upon coastal waters, if so authorized by their town, and the board of aldermen or the city council of any city so situated may control, regulate or prohibit the taking of eels and any or all kinds of shellfish and sea worms within suc…

Section 53. All permits issued under section fifty-two shall be issued in the name of the body authorizing the issuing of the same; but, under a vote of such body, any such permit shall be valid if issued bearing the signature of any one member thereof, or of the city or town cle…

Section 54. Cities by a vote of the board of aldermen, or city council, and towns by a vote at a town meeting, may appropriate money for the cultivation, propagation and protection of shellfish. The board of aldermen, or city council, or selectmen when so authorized by their town…

Section 55. No permit for the taking of shellfish for commercial purposes, except in the city of New Bedford, shall be issued by the aldermen or councilmen of any city or the selectmen of any town to an alien unless he has resided in such city or town for at least five years next…

Section 56. Whenever under the authority of any law two or more municipalities have joint property in, or the right of joint control of, any marine fisheries referred to in section fifty-two, the board of aldermen or city council of the city, or the selectmen of the town if so au…

Section 57. The city council or mayor of any city, or the selectmen of any town, may upon written application, accompanied by plans sufficient to show the intended project and project area to be licensed, and after public notice and hearing pursuant to section sixty, grant to any…

Section 58. Any license granted under section fifty-seven or corresponding provisions of earlier laws may be transferred with the approval of the city council or selectmen to any person to whom it might originally have been granted, and, whether or not so transferred, may, within…

Section 59. Any person, firm or corporation qualified as provided in section fifty-seven and desiring to obtain a license thereunder shall present to the city council or selectmen a written application setting forth the name and residence of the applicant, a definite description …

Section 60. No license referred to in section fifty-seven shall be granted, transferred or renewed until after a public hearing, due notice of which has been posted in three or more public places, and published in a newspaper, if any, published in the city or town where the terri…

Section 61. The licensee upon receiving his license shall cause the territory covered thereby to be plainly marked out by monuments, marks or ranges and by stakes or buoys, with the number of his license painted in figures at least two inches in height in a conspicuous place on e…

Section 62. The aldermen, city council or selectmen shall keep in their offices plans showing all such licensed areas, and, in a book devoted to that purpose only, a record of each license granted and of all transfers or renewals thereof, which shall include the name and residenc…

Section 63. The licensee or transferee, or his legal representatives, shall, for the purposes set forth in section fifty-seven and in accord with the terms set forth in said license, have during the term of the license or of any renewal thereof the exclusive use of the waters, fl…

Section 64. Every such licensee or transferee shall pay to the city or town, on or before a date to be fixed by the aldermen, city council or selectmen, an annual fee of not less than five nor more than twenty-five dollars per acre, or part thereof. If any such fee is not paid wi…

Section 65. Every licensee or transferee of a license referred to in section fifty-seven shall submit on oath on or before February 28 in each year to the director and to the city council or selectmen of the city or town wherein the licensed area is situated a report of the total…

Section 66. No person shall willfully injure, deface, destroy or remove any mark or bound used to define the extent of any shellfish license or grant, or place any unauthorized mark thereon, or tie or fasten any boat or vessel thereto. Any person who violates this section shall b…

Section 67. No person shall, without the consent of the licensee or transferee, as the case may be: (i) work a dredge, oyster tongs, rake or other implement for the taking of shellfish of any description upon any shellfish grounds or beds covered by a license granted under sectio…

Section 68. No person shall dig, take or carry away any shellfish or shells between one half hour after sunset and one half hour before sunrise, by any method whatever, from any waters, flats or creeks as to which a license under section fifty-seven or corresponding provisions of…

Section 69. Whoever takes or has in his possession quahaugs or soft shelled clams or oysters smaller than the minimum size established by the director through regulations, hereinafter referred to as seed quahaugs, seed clams and seed oysters, to the amount of more than five perce…

Section 70. No person shall take from the flats or coastal waters of the commonwealth scallops other than adult scallops, or sell or offer for sale or have in possession such scallops. For the purposes of this section an adult scallop shall be a scallop with a well-defined raised…

Section 71. Except as provided in sections seventy and seventy-three, no person shall take scallops between April first and the following October first from the flats or coastal waters of the commonwealth, or buy or sell or have in possession scallops so taken.

Section 72. No person shall for any purpose take more than a total of ten bushels of scallops, including shells, in one day, unless authorized by the director under sections seventy and seventy-three so to do.

Section 73. The provisions of sections seventy-one and seventy-two in respect to the open and close season, and in respect to the number of scallops that may be taken, may be temporarily modified if, on petition of the aldermen, city council or selectmen to the director, the dire…

Section 74. The division of marine fisheries shall examine from time to time as conditions may require, or upon request of the commissioner of public health, the mayor or city manager of a city, or the selectmen or town manager of a town, the coastal waters and flats of the commo…

Section 74A. Both the department of public health and the division of marine fisheries shall have the authority immediately to designate shellfish areas as contaminated and that shellfish obtained therefrom are unfit for food and dangerous to the public health, in the event of an…

Section 75. The director may grant, and may revoke, written permits for the digging or taking of shellfish from an area determined under section seventy-four or corresponding provisions of earlier laws to be contaminated while such determination is in force, every such permit to …

Section 76. The director of the division of marine fisheries may construct and operate shellfish purification plants for the treatment of shellfish taken from areas determined under section seventy-four or any corresponding provisions of earlier laws, to be contaminated, and may …

Section 77. For the purpose of partially defraying the costs of the operation and maintenance of shellfish purification plants, the division of marine fisheries shall charge the users of said service an amount which shall be determined annually by the commissioner of administrati…

Section 80. Except as permitted in sections thirty-eight and seventy-five, no person shall fish for or take fish for commercial purposes in the coastal waters, or land raw fish, whether frozen or unfrozen, in the commonwealth, for the purpose of sale unless he is the holder of a …

Section 81. No person shall transport, or cause to be transported, into this commonwealth for consumption as food any shellfish taken or dug from areas outside the commonwealth, or sell, cause to be sold, or keep, offer or expose for sale for consumption as aforesaid any shellfis…

Section 82. No wholesale or retail dealer in shellfish, and no person holding a victualler's license, shall receive any shellfish unless the same bears a label or tag legibly marked with the source of supply, the date when taken, and either the certificate or permit number or the…

Section 83. For the purposes of defraying the costs of the division's research, management and other activities including administrative and operating expenses, and the cost of issuing the following resident and nonresident permits and any inspections relative thereto, resident a…

Section 8A. In a city or town bordering on coastal waters, a police officer employed on a full time, provisional or reserve basis shall, for the enforcement of sections thirty-one, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-eight A, thirty-nine, forty-one, forty-one A, forty-three and fo…

Section 9. The director, the deputy directors of enforcement, chiefs of enforcement, deputy chiefs of enforcement and all environmental police officers and deputy environmental police officers or a member of the state police may, without a warrant, search any boat, vessel, fish c…

Section 92. No person shall sell, exchange, transport or deliver and no person shall offer or expose for sale, exchange or delivery or have in their custody or possession with intent to sell, exchange, transport or deliver any scallops or sea scallops which have been soaked and s…