Section 37 Lobsters and crabs; licenses - Massachusetts Statutes

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, maintained, supervised, lifted, raised or drawn in or from the said waters, any pot, trap or other contrivance designed for, or adapted to, the taking of lobsters or edible crabs, unless licensed so to do under section thirty-eight.

No person shall at any time take from any waters under the jurisdiction of the commonwealth any lobsters by spearing, dipping or dragging.

In the waters of Gosnold in the county of Dukes County, no such pot, trap or other contrivance shall be buoyed otherwise than separately and plainly.

Violation of any provision of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than two hundred nor more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than three months, or both. Nothing in this section or section thirty-eight shall be construed to prohibit or regulate the taking of crabs other than edible crabs solely for bait purposes, or for the taking of edible crabs for use of one’s immediate family; provided, that the number of such edible crabs so taken by any one person shall not exceed fifty in one day and such edible crabs shall not be taken by pots or traps.