Massachusetts Statutes

Section 22. A person, except as provided in sections twenty-three to twenty-eight, inclusive, shall not buy, sell, barter, exchange, offer or expose for sale or have in his possession for the purpose of sale, or in any way deal in or trade with respect to, any trout, salmon, horn…

Section 22A. Notwithstanding the provisions of sections twenty-two, twenty-three and twenty-four, the director, with the approval of the fisheries and wildlife board, may make, alter, amend and rescind rules and regulations relative to the disposition of deer killed by means othe…

Section 23. Except as otherwise provided by this section or any rule or regulation made under the authority thereof, a person shall not engage in the propagation, cultivation, or maintenance of, or the dealing in, fish, birds, mammals, reptiles, or amphibians, or parts thereof, a…

Section 24. The director, upon written application to him, may issue to any person a dealer's license under clause (6) of section twenty-three, authorizing the holder thereof to engage in the business of buying, selling or offering for sale, for food purposes, the carcasses, or p…

Section 25. Except as provided in sections four and twenty-three, a person shall not have in his possession at any time a live bird or mammal other than those named in section five, or a live reptile or amphibian. Birds and mammals had in possession under any license issued under…

Section 25A. If the director, upon examination of any fish, bird, mammal, reptile or amphibian held in possession either by persons licensed or required to be licensed under the provisions of section twenty-three, except dealers licensed both under clause (4) of section twenty-th…

Section 25B. If the director, by examination of a case of contagious or infectious disease or parasite of any fish, bird, mammal, reptile or amphibian, has imposed a quarantine as provided in section twenty-five A, and is of the opinion that the public good so requires or that th…

Section 25C. Any fish, bird, mammal, reptile or amphibian which has been quarantined or isolated by order or notice of the director as authorized by section twenty-five A, shall, during the continuance of such quarantine or isolation, be deemed to be afflicted with a contagious o…

Section 26. Any fish, birds, mammals, reptiles or amphibians lawfully taken or lawfully propagated without the commonwealth may be purchased by any dealer licensed under section twenty-three; provided, that the export and sale is lawful in the state, province or country in which …

Section 27. The director is hereby authorized to issue a taxidermist's license, upon payment of a fee, the amount of which shall be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven for the filing thereof, to any per…

Section 28. A person shall not purchase or receive the skins or pelts of any fur-bearing mammals unless he has obtained a fur buyer's license from the director, which licenses the director is hereby authorized to issue to the following classes of persons upon payment of fees, the…

Section 29. Sections nineteen, nineteen A and twenty-two to twenty-eight, inclusive, shall not apply to those zoos approved by the United States department of agriculture. Natural history associations and museums, or zoos not approved by the United States department of agricultur…

Section 2A. There is hereby established within the Inland Fisheries and Game Fund, a wildland acquisition account which shall be credited monies received from the sale of wildland conservation stamps, the portion of the fees for sporting, fishing, trapping and hunting licenses to…

Section 2B. The state treasurer shall receive and deposit all revenues transmitted to him under provisions of sections 2A and 2C in such a manner that will ensure the highest rate of interest available consistent with the safety of the Inland Fisheries and Game Fund, and all inte…

Section 2C. Monies received by the commonwealth from license fees, permit fees and from any and all sources pertaining to inland fishing, hunting and trapping from permit fees under section 22A, from any sale authorized in section 6 and sums received by the commonwealth from the …

Section 3. All fines, penalties and forfeitures recovered in prosecutions under the laws relative to fish, birds and mammals shall be equally divided between the county where such prosecution is made and the city or town where the offence is committed; provided, that if the compl…

Section 30. Notwithstanding the provisions of section fifty or of any other provision of this chapter, the director may issue permits upon the receipt of a fee, the amount of which shall be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section t…

Section 31. The director is authorized to issue permits for the operation of commercial shooting preserves. Any person desiring to operate a commercial shooting preserve shall make application therefor on forms to be furnished by the director. The director may, upon receipt of a …

Section 32. Unless otherwise specified, all licenses, permits and certificates issued under any provision of this chapter shall expire at twelve midnight on December thirty-first next succeeding the effective date of such license, permit or certificate. Such licenses, permits and…

Section 33. A person shall not alter, forge or counterfeit any license, permit, permit application, certificate, tag or seal issued under any provisions of this chapter or any rule or regulation made under authority thereof, nor possess or use any such altered, forged or counterf…

Section 34. A license, permit or certificate issued pursuant to this chapter, except a license issued under clause (3), (4) or (6) of the seventh paragraph of section 23, and held by a person found guilty of, convicted of, assessed in any manner after a plea of nolo contendere or…

Section 35. The provisions of section thirty-four, except as hereinafter provided, shall not apply to any holder of a sporting, hunting, fishing or trapping license who violates section twelve in that he fails to carry such license on his person and wear it in a visible manner on…

Section 36. A person shall not fish, hunt or trap on private land without permission of the owner or tenant thereof, after such owner or tenant has conspicuously posted thereon notices which bear the name of such owner or tenant and which state that fishing, hunting or trapping o…

Section 37. An owner or tenant of land or, if authorized by such owner or tenant, any member of his immediate family or his employee, as defined pursuant to section one of chapter sixty-two B, may, upon such land:— (1) kill or attempt to kill, by means other than poisoning or tra…

Section 38. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the director may, upon application of a farmer, as defined in section one A of chapter one hundred and twenty-eight, grant a permit to trap live, and thereafter destroy, birds that are destroying agricultural crops or endang…

Section 39A. A city or town in the county of Berkshire which accepts the provisions of this section may designate its conservation commission, or if having none, the board of selectmen in a town or the mayor in a city, to carry out the provisions of this section. The designated a…

Section 4. The director may: (1) destroy from time to time license books, stubs, licenses and license blanks after the same have been properly audited by the state auditor, and such other documents as the director deems advisable after the same have been noted in the official rec…

Section 40. No person shall remove, fill, dredge or alter any bank, riverfront area, fresh water wetland, coastal wetland, beach, dune, flat, marsh, meadow or swamp bordering on the ocean or on any estuary, creek, river, stream, pond, or lake, or any land under said waters or any…

Section 40A. The commissioner of environmental protection shall from time to time, for the purpose of preserving and promoting the public safety, private property, wildlife, fisheries, water resources, flood plain areas and agriculture, adopt, amend or repeal orders regulating, r…

Section 40B. The farmland advisory board established in section forty shall meet quarterly and at the call of the commissioner or upon written request of any two members. The board is charged with advising the commissioner relative to the definitions of ''normal maintenance or im…

Section 41. If the director determines that any fisheries in the inland waters of the commonwealth are of sufficient value to warrant the prohibition or regulation of the discharge of any waste or other material from any source, which may, directly or indirectly, injure such fish…

Section 42. A person shall not put, throw, discharge or permit to be discharged or to escape into any inland waters of the commonwealth any waste or other material, in violation of section forty or of any provisions of the Massachusetts Clean Water Act, which may directly or indi…

Section 43. A person shall not place poison in any form whatsoever for the purpose of killing any mammal or bird except pursuant to a permit issued under the provisions of this section; provided, that this section shall not prohibit any person from placing in his orchard or in or…

Section 44. A person while engaged in hunting, fishing or trapping shall not deposit or cause to be deposited garbage, paper, refuse, bottles, cans, rubbish or trash of any kind or nature on any public or private property without permission of the owner, tenant or lessee of such …

Section 45. Except as otherwise provided in this section and elsewhere in this chapter, every great pond not actively being used as a source of water supply of any town, water supply or fire district or public institution, and not subject to the provisions of section one hundred …

Section 46. The department of environmental protection shall, upon the request and at the expense of any person claiming to be interested in a pond, cause a measurement thereof to be made which shall be recorded in the office of the clerk of each city and town within the limits o…

Section 47. No riparian proprietor of a natural pond other than a great pond, or of an artificial pond of any size, or of a nonnavigable stream, shall enclose the waters thereof within the limits of his own premises unless he furnishes a suitable passage for all anadromous fish n…

Section 48. A person shall not, except in case of emergency, drain any pond, reservoir or other body of water, except a body of water used for irrigation or insect control purposes, or for flooding cranberry bogs, or for public water supply, to an extent dangerous to fish life th…

Section 49. If, in the case of a pond situated partly in the commonwealth and partly in another state, the laws of such other state permit fishing in that part thereof lying within such other state by persons licensed or otherwise entitled under the laws of the commonwealth to fi…

Section 5. The director shall declare an open season on fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians or mammals in any county where such open season seems advisable, and may make rules and regulations relating to the time and length of such open season, bag limits, possession limits, method…

Section 50. A person shall not, except as otherwise permitted by law, take or attempt to take any fish in inland waters, in any other manner than by angling; but cities and towns may permit the use of nets and seines for taking herring and alewives, and may permit the use of pots…

Section 51. Brook, brown and rainbow trout may be taken in coastal waters of the commonwealth by angling only, subject to the rules and regulations promulgated under section five for taking such trout in rivers and streams.

Section 52. Shiners, minnows, killifish, sculpin, sticklebacks, and suckers may be taken for bait, but not for the purpose of sale, in any of the inland waters of the commonwealth by means of a single fish trap with openings not over one inch or by a single circular or hoop net n…

Section 52A. Eels may be taken commercially in inland waters except ponds having a diked opening to the sea by a licensed fisherman possessing a license to do so for the purpose of sale. The director of fisheries and wildlife is hereby authorized to establish rules and regulation…

Section 53. A person shall not fish with floats, otherwise known as toggle fishing, in any inland water of the commonwealth. For the purposes of this section, a ''float'' shall mean any device floating with a line and hook attached, baited with natural or artificial bait and not …

Section 54. Except as otherwise permitted by law, a person shall not draw, set, stretch or use a fish trap, gill net, drag net, set net, purse net, seine or trawl, or set or use more than two hooks for fishing, or, in the case of ice fishing, five hooks, in any inland water, or a…