Title 20, Title 20 and Wildlife

The superior court, upon the application of the director of environmental management, shall have jurisdiction in equity to enjoin the violation of any of the provisions of this chapter and to enforce the orders of the director provided for in this chapter.

Any person who willfully or maliciously cuts, removes, displaces, tampers with, or in any way damages any trap, leader, or pound set by virtue of the permit provided for by this chapter shall be imprisoned not exceeding two (2) years, or fined not exceeding one thousand dollars (…

Every person or corporation willfully violating any of the provisions of this chapter, or any rule or regulation adopted under the authority of this chapter, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500), nor less than one hundred dollars ($100), or impris…

The department of environmental management may issue permits duly signed and under its seal to set or erect and maintain fish traps, as provided in this chapter, to any resident of this state or to any corporations incorporated in the state, licensed in accordance with chapter 2.…

The general assembly shall annually appropriate any sums it may deem sufficient to be expended by the department of environmental management under the provisions of this chapter; and the state controller is authorized and directed to draw orders upon the general treasurer for tho…

It shall be unlawful to place any fish trap, as defined in this chapter, in the public waters of this state within one mile of the shore of the Island of Conanicut and no permit for this purpose shall be granted.

Each section of this chapter, and each part of each section, is hereby declared to be an independent section; and the holding of any section or sections in part or parts of sections to be void, ineffective, or unconstitutional for any cause, shall not be deemed to affect any othe…

(a) Any person desiring a permit for a location for erecting a fish trap shall make application in writing to the department of environmental management in any form and giving any information that the department may require. (b) Each application for a location for a fish trap sha…

Except as provided in § 20-5-5, no permit shall be granted for the erection within the public waters of the state of a fish trap any part of which is less than three thousand feet (3,000′) distant from an adjoining trap, measured parallel with the general coastline at such point …

No permit shall be granted for the erection of a fish trap within that portion of the public waters of the state southerly of the island of Rhode Island, designated by the engineer’s office of the department of the army as available fishing areas, lying easterly of Brenton’s Reef…

(a) No more than two (2) traps shall be set together in any continuous string of line, and there shall be a space of one hundred fifty (150) fathoms between two traps set within which no trap, leader, or other twine shall be placed. (b) No more than three (3) traps shall be set, …

Each leader shall be set as nearly as may be in a straight line and, with the exception of the traps permitted by § 20-5-5(7) and (8), no bend or angle in each leader known commonly as a “hook-back” shall be permitted.

The director of environmental management shall, where there are two (2) or more applicants for permits for the same location or for locations that are less than three thousand feet (3,000′) apart, determine which applicant has continuously during the fishing season occupied the l…

(a) All permits issued under this chapter shall be for a three-year period or for that portion thereof expiring on the last day of December of each third year thereafter. (b) On termination of any permit, the department may renew the permit by issuing a new permit in place of the…

Unless otherwise specified in regulations, any resident of this state may, without a license, take in any one day during the open season, if applicable, not more than one half (½) bushel each of quahaugs, soft-shell clams, sea clams, oysters, and mussels, and not more than one bu…

(a) Unless otherwise specified by regulation, a holder of a commercial shellfishing license may take and/or possess, in any one day, up to twelve (12) bushels of quahaugs, twelve (12) bushels of soft-shell clams, and three (3) bushels of oysters. (b) A holder of a nonresident she…

(a) No person shall take and/or possess any quahogs less than one inch (1") shell thickness (hinge width). In addition, no person shall take and/or possess soft-shell clams, taken from the free and common soft-shell clam fisheries, of a diameter less than one and one half inches …

Any person licensed to take quahaugs by dredge, rake, or other apparatus operated by power or hauled by a power boat may take and possess, between sunrise and sunset of any one day, thirty (30) bushels of quahaugs, unless a different amount is specified by regulation. Any person …

Any person who, without a license, takes quahaugs by dredge, or any person who violates any suspension of the director of environmental management made with respect to quahaug dredging or who violates any provisions of this chapter for which a penalty is not otherwise provided, s…

Any costs incurred by the seizure and impounding of power boats by authority of § 20-6-13 shall be assessed against the owner, or owners, of those boats, and none of these seized and impounded boats shall be released to any claimant, unless and until, any costs incurred by reason…

No person, either as principal, agent, or employee, shall dig or take by any method other than by forks, rakes, hoes, tongs, or any other device operated by hand, from any of the waters of this state, any soft-shell clam. Any violation of the provisions of this section shall be p…

Unless otherwise specified by regulation, a person holding a license for the commercial taking of scallops shall take in any one day not more than ten (10) bushels of scallops, including shells, from the waters of the state.

Every person taking any seed scallops, and failing to restore them as soon as possible to their natural beds in the water from which taken, shall be fined not less than twenty dollars ($20.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100) or be imprisoned not exceeding thirty (30) day…

Any person offering for sale any scallops, other than during the open season for taking scallops, shall be fined not less than twenty dollars ($20.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100) for each quart offered for sale, or be imprisoned not exceeding thirty (30) days, or bot…

Unless otherwise specified by regulation, no person engaged in the taking of scallops shall use more than six (6) single dredges, the blades of which shall not be more than twenty-eight inches (28″) in width, and the bag used shall not be more than thirty-six inches (36″) in leng…

Unless otherwise specified in regulations, the open season for taking oysters from the free and common oyster fisheries in any of the waters of this state shall be between the fifteenth day of September and the fifteenth day of May. Any person taking any oysters or exposing any o…

Any person who tows a scallop dredge in the waters of the state during the season closed to the taking of scallops shall, upon conviction, be fined not less than twenty dollars ($20.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100) or imprisoned not exceeding thirty (30) days, or both…

No person shall possess the meats of more than six (6) shellfish while shellfishing on the waters of the state or throw the shells of open scallops onto the scallop beds.

The director of environmental management may conduct any scallop transplant programs as may be appropriate to enhance scallop stock, seed depleted areas, and further the scallop harvest in the state.

Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or public law to the contrary, any person who takes any oysters, clams, quahaugs, scallops, or mussels from any of the waters of this state during the hours between sundown and sunrise shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of …

All moneys derived from payments received for fishing licenses required under the provisions of this chapter shall be deposited with the general treasurer, and the general assembly shall annually appropriate any sum that it deems necessary for the protection, cultivation, researc…

The director of environmental management is authorized and directed, after requiring all necessary safeguards, to transfer shellfish from uncertified waters of the state to approved areas. The director may make rules and regulations governing the reharvest of those shellfish to t…

Those areas to which the shellfish are transferred shall be marked out and dredging, raking, or tonging on them shall be prohibited except under the special direction of the director.

For the transfer of shellfish pursuant to § 20-6-26, the director is authorized to hire dredge boats or handrakers and to set the rate of payment. Any transferred shellfish may be sold by the director, and the proceeds of that sale retained under the control of the director for t…

Any person violating rules or regulations promulgated by the director of environmental management as provided for in §§ 20-6-26 — 20-6-28, shall, upon conviction, be subject to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500) or imprisoned not exceeding thirty (30) days, or both.

Unless otherwise specified in regulations, the open season for taking scallops from the free and common scallop fisheries in any of the waters of the state shall be between sunrise of the first day of October and sunset on the last day of December of every year. Any person taking…

(a) It is hereby prohibited to take shellfish by the use of a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) from Green Hill Pond, Quonochontaug Pond, Charlestown Pond, and Potters Pond. (b) Penalty. Any person convicted of taking shellfish as set forth in subsection (a) s…

No boat shall be used in the taking of quahaugs by dredge or the commercial taking of scallops unless that boat has been registered with the director of environmental management. Each registered boat shall be issued a certificate of registration and assigned a number, and this nu…

Each boat registered pursuant to § 20-6-4 shall be operated only by the person to whom that boat was registered; provided that person is duly licensed for the activity engaged in. Each registered boat used shall be limited, no matter how many persons are on board, to the catch li…

Each boat used in the commercial taking of oysters, soft-shell clams, surf clams, mussels, or quahaugs, other than by dredging, shall be registered with the director of environmental management. Upon registration, and the payment of a fee of two dollars ($2.00), the boat shall be…

Except as hereinafter provided and unless otherwise specified by regulation, no person shall take any oysters, bay quahaugs, or soft-shell clams from the waters of this state by dredges, rakes, or other apparatus operated by mechanical power or hauled by power boats. No licensed …

Pursuant to good conservation practices, the director shall be authorized to open areas of the public waters of the state for taking quahaugs under license by a registered boat, by dredges, rakes, or other apparatus operated by mechanical power or hauled by power boats, and shall…

Every person taking in any one day more than one half (½) bushel each of oysters, bay quahaugs, soft-shell clams, sea clams, or mussels from the free and common fisheries of this state, without a license, shall be fined, upon conviction, not exceeding fifty dollars ($50.00) and c…

No person, either as principal, agent, or servant, shall, at any time, catch or take any lobster from any of the waters in the jurisdiction of this state, or place, set, keep, maintain, supervise, lift, raise, or draw in or from any of those waters, or cause to be placed, set, ke…

(a)(1) Unless otherwise specified by regulations, no person shall catch or take from any of the waters within the jurisdiction of this state, or have in their possession within this state, any lobster, or parts of lobsters, cooked or uncooked, that is less than three and three si…

(a) Each and every lobster pot, set, kept, or maintained, or caused to be set, kept, or maintained, in any of the waters in the jurisdiction of this state by any person licensed under this chapter, shall contain an escape vent in accordance with the following specifications: (1) …