Massachusetts Statutes

Section 30. Any person who constructs or maintains any weir, pound net or fish trap after having received written approval therefor as provided in section twenty-nine shall at all times while such structure is maintained have the same plainly marked with the number of such approv…

Section 31. No person shall, without the consent of the owner, take, use, destroy, injure or molest fishing gear. The division, with the approval of the marine fisheries advisory commission and the department, shall promulgate regulations that may authorize or permit the removal …

Section 33. The owner of every boat, and the owner of every pound net, fish trap, weir, fyke net or similar contrivance, fishing pier, seine, drag or gill net, lobster or crab pot or trap or other fishing gear, hereinafter referred to as devices, used for fishing purposes, and ev…

Section 34. Between March 15 and June 15, inclusive, no person shall catch or take any smelt from the waters of the commonwealth or buy, receive, sell or offer or expose for sale, transport or possess a smelt so taken. Any wholesale or retail dealer who sells, offers or exposes f…

Section 35. No person shall take or attempt to take a smelt in any other manner than by angling. This section shall not apply to smelt inadvertently taken in a seine or net during the time and in the manner in which fishing is allowed for perch, herring or alewives; provided, how…

Section 36. For the purpose of protecting smelt and their spawn the director may close such portions of streams flowing into the coastal waters during the spawning season of such fish as he may deem necessary and may forbid the entrance into such portions of said streams by posti…

Section 37. No person, either as principal, agent or employee, shall at any time catch lobsters or edible crabs in, or take them from, the coastal waters or place, set, keep, maintain, supervise, lift, raise or draw in or from the said waters, or cause to be placed, set, kept, ma…

Section 37A. Any person may take green crabs, more specifically known as the species Carcinides Maenas, provided, that such person (a) gives written notice to such effect to the director, (b) marks all traps, gear and buoys in a uniform manner in accordance with requirements set …

Section 38. A person shall not fish for or take lobsters or edible crabs in coastal waters or land the same in the commonwealth without a permit issued by the director or his agent. A noncommercial lobster and crab permit shall authorize the holder and the members of holder's imm…

Section 38A. No person or persons shall take or attempt to take, by diving, lobsters, or edible crabs from the coastal waters, unless he displays his lobster license number upon his air tank, and for each person diving alone or for each group of divers upon the surface of said wa…

Section 38B. All applicants issued a commercial fishermen permit for the taking of lobsters in coastal waters shall document their catch and sale of lobsters at such times and upon such forms as may be determined by the director. Individual catch data so documented shall be confi…

Section 39. No person shall tend, lift, raise or draw a lobster or crab pot or trap, or take lobsters or edible crabs from such a pot or trap, or catch or take lobsters from the coastal waters by any means, except during the period from one half hour before sunrise until one half…

Section 4. The director or his agent shall make a record, in books kept therefor, of all licenses, permits or certificates issued by him under the authority of this chapter, and shall date each license, permit or certificate as of the date of issue; and except as hereinafter prov…

Section 41. Any person who takes, sells or has in possession any female lobster bearing externally attached eggs shall be punished for the first offense by a fine of not less than $150 nor more than $500 for every such lobster and for a subsequent offense by a fine of not less th…

Section 41A. Any person who takes, sells or has in his possession any female lobster from which the eggs have been removed by means other than natural hatching, shall be punished for the first offense by a fine of not less than $250 nor more than $1,000 for every such lobster and…

Section 42. The director shall, to the extent of appropriation or appropriations therefor, establish and maintain a plant or plants for the propagation of lobsters by rearing them from the time of hatching to the bottom crawling stages. Lobsters from which the eggs are to be obta…

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…