What Is the Fine for Keeping a Short Lobster in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts writes the penalty for a short lobster per lobster. M.G.L. c. 130, sec. 44 sets a first-offense fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500 for every such lobster, and a later offense at not less than $500 nor more than $1,000 for every such lobster, or one to three months in jail, or both.

The multiplier is in the text

Most fines are stated as a single figure for a single violation. Section 44 is written differently, and the phrase doing the work is “for every such lobster.” Twenty undersized lobsters in a container is twenty fines under the plain language, not one.

That is the payload of this rule, and it is the part that comes straight from the statute rather than from a regulation or from practice.

The size itself is not in the statute anymore

Section 44 does contain a number: a 3 1/4 inch floor written into the statute in 1989. It also, in the same section, authorizes the director to raise the minimum by regulation and to set different minimums for different geographic areas so Massachusetts can match Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission standards.

That authority has been exercised. The operative minimum today lives in the regulations at 322 CMR, which is where a person actually measuring a lobster needs to look. Quoting the 1989 statutory floor as the current legal size, which many articles do, is out of date.

Measurement and the moment of possession

The statute specifies how the measurement is taken: from the rear of the eye socket, along a line parallel to the center line of the body shell, to the rear end of the body shell. That is a carapace measurement.

Possession is prohibited for longer than is necessary to measure the lobster immediately or dispose of it lawfully. Picking one up and putting the gauge on it is the situation the statute allows for. Keeping it is the conduct section 44 reaches.

Gear impoundment

Separately from the fine, M.G.L. c. 130, sec. 2 allows gear used in lobster violations to be impounded for a period running from 30 days to one year from conviction.