Commercial Lobster Season in Massachusetts: Permits and Trap Limits

Commercial lobster season in Massachusetts runs year-round with one major exception: from February 1 through May 15, commercial trap fishers may not fish, set, maintain, or abandon trap gear in Massachusetts state waters, a closure driven by North Atlantic right whale protection.¹ Waters within Lobster Conservation Management Area 2 (LCMA 2) are exempt from that closure. Everything else, from trap counts to size limits to gear specifications, depends on which management area your permit covers.

When You Can Fish Commercially

The state-waters closure from February 1 through May 15 applies to all commercial trap fishers except those operating in LCMA 2. The Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) Director can extend the closure past May 15 or lift it after April 30, depending on documented right whale presence in Massachusetts waters. Adjustments are made by formal Notice of Declaration, published in the Massachusetts Register and distributed through the DMF’s email list.¹

Because the dates can shift, checking the DMF’s current notices before you set or retrieve gear near the closure boundaries matters. Gear left in the water during the closure is itself a violation, so preparation for the closed period starts weeks earlier.

Permits Required to Fish Commercially

Anyone who fishes for or takes lobsters in Massachusetts coastal waters needs a permit from the DMF.² Commercial permits carry annual fees that vary by gear type and fishing area, and each permit is tied to specific Lobster Conservation Management Areas that determine your trap allocation, size limits, and other rules.

Every trap a commercial fisher deploys must carry a valid trap tag that links back to a specific permit and management area.³ Missing or mismatched tags are among the easier violations for enforcement officers to spot.

Federal Permit for the Exclusive Economic Zone

If you fish beyond state waters, you need a separate federal lobster permit from NOAA Fisheries in addition to your state permit. Federal permits must be renewed annually; 2025 permits expire on April 30, 2026. When renewing, you select the federal management areas you intend to fish, and those areas appear on your 2026 trap tags.⁴

For the 2026 fishing year, federal permit holders who fish with traps must attach valid 2026 trap tags to every fished trap by June 1, 2026, and those tags remain valid through May 31, 2027. Only tags purchased through the authorized vendor, Cambridge Security Seals, count as valid after June 1. Non-trap federal permit holders (diving or by hand) do not need to select a management area or purchase trap tags.⁴

Management Areas and Trap Limits

Massachusetts commercial lobster fishing is organized into management areas that span state and federal waters. The three most relevant are EEZ Nearshore Management Area 1 (the Gulf of Maine, from the Massachusetts coast north through New Hampshire and Maine), EEZ Nearshore Management Area 2 (Southern New England, south of Cape Cod), and EEZ Offshore Management Area 3 (entirely federal waters farther offshore).⁵

Each area has its own trap cap:

Area 1: 800 traps
Area 2: 800 traps, under a limited-access program; you can only fish traps previously qualified and allocated into this area
Area 3: 1,945 traps, also limited access

At the state level, Massachusetts mirrors the 800-trap limit for LCMA 1 and caps vessels at 800 traps regardless of how many permitted fishers are on board.⁶ If your permit covers more than one federal management area, you must follow the most restrictive rules from any of those areas for the entire fishing year, no matter which area you are physically fishing in on a given day.⁵

Size Limits by Area

Carapace length is measured from the rear of the eye socket along a line parallel to the center of the body shell to the rear end of the shell. Both minimum and maximum limits apply, and both matter: the minimum protects juveniles until they can reproduce, and the maximum protects large breeding females that produce disproportionate numbers of eggs.

LCMA 1 (Gulf of Maine): minimum 3¼ inches, maximum 5 inches³
LCMA 2 (Southern New England): minimum 3⅜ inches, maximum 5¼ inches⁵
Area 3 (Offshore): minimum 3¹⁷⁄₃₂ inches, maximum 6¾ inches⁵

Seafood dealers are also prohibited from buying or selling lobsters that fall outside these size windows, so the rules reach up the supply chain.³

Egg-Bearing and V-Notched Females

Protecting proven breeders is one of the fishery’s core conservation rules. When a commercial fisher catches an egg-bearing female, the standard practice is to cut a V-shaped notch into the first right tail flipper next to the center flipper before releasing her.⁷ The notch persists through several molts, marking her as a breeder long after the current clutch of eggs is gone.

In LCMA 1, the standard is zero tolerance: you may not possess any female lobster with any V-shaped notch at all. Areas 2 and 3 apply a slightly less strict “standard” V-notch definition, but possessing a V-notched female is still prohibited.⁵ Enforcement officers focus close attention on this rule, and “I didn’t notice” is not a viable defense.

Gear Requirements

Traps must meet detailed specifications aimed at reducing bycatch and preventing ghost fishing by lost gear.

Escape vents built to specific dimensions must be present on every trap, allowing undersized lobsters and non-target species to exit on their own.³
Every trap must include a ghost panel in the parlor section made of or fastened with biodegradable material. If the trap is lost, the panel degrades within about 12 months and creates an opening for trapped lobsters to escape. It must be unobstructed and placed on the sides, end, or top of the parlor.³
Each trap must carry a valid tag matching the fisher’s permit and management area, and all traps must be marked in accordance with state gear-marking requirements.³

Whale-Safe Buoy Line Rules

Year-round, Massachusetts commercial trap fishers must use gear designed to reduce right whale entanglement severity.

All buoy lines must break at 1,700 pounds of tension. You can achieve this with manufactured weak buoy line or by inserting NOAA-approved weak inserts into the top 75% of the buoy line every 60 feet.⁸
Commercial buoy line cannot exceed ⅜-inch diameter.⁸
In state waters, one solid red mark of at least 3 feet is required in the surface system (the first 12 feet from the buoy), plus at least four red marks of at least 2 feet each in the body of the line, with at least two in the top half and two in the bottom half, spaced no more than 60 feet apart.⁸
In federal waters and in LCMA 1, LCMA 2, and Outer Cape, the surface system requires one solid red mark of at least 3 feet plus a solid green mark of at least 1 foot no more than 6 inches below it. The body of the line needs three marks in the top, middle, and bottom thirds, each with at least 1 foot of red and 1 foot of green.⁸

The federal Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan adds further requirements for sinking groundline and minimum traps per trawl in federal waters.⁹

Penalties for Violations

The general penalty provision under Chapter 130 applies to any violation of the state’s marine fisheries laws unless a specific statute sets a different penalty: a fine between $400 and $10,000, imprisonment for up to two and a half years, or both. Civil penalties can also reach $10,000 per violation.¹⁰

Undersized lobsters carry their own per-lobster fines. A first offense runs $100 to $500 per lobster, and subsequent offenses run $500 to $1,000 per lobster, or one to three months in jail, or both. The lobsters are also seized and forfeited.¹¹ Those numbers add up quickly. Twenty shorts on a first offense could mean $2,000 to $10,000 from a single boarding.

Anyone who knowingly helps with a violation or shares in the proceeds, including receiving or possessing illegally caught lobsters, faces the same penalties as the person who committed the underlying violation.¹² Dealers and buyers are exposed alongside fishers.

Violations that cross into federal territory can trigger the Lacey Act, which prohibits the sale, transport, or acquisition of fish or wildlife taken in violation of any federal, state, or foreign law. Federal Lacey Act convictions involving illegal lobster commerce have carried penalties of up to five or ten years in prison and fines up to $250,000 or twice the defendant’s financial gain, whichever is greater. Those cases typically involve large-scale trafficking, but the statute is broad enough to reach anyone who knowingly moves illegally harvested lobster across state lines or through interstate commerce.

1
Legal Information Institute. 322 CMR 12.04 – Fixed Gear Seasonal Closures
2
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code 130 – Licenses; Application; Fee; Eligibility; Markings of Buoys; Exhibition of License
3
Cornell Law School. 322 CMR 6.02 – Lobster Conservation and Management
4
NOAA Fisheries. Federal Lobster Permit Holders: Lobster Trap Tag Ordering Instructions
5
eCFR. Part 697 Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management
6
Justia. Code of Massachusetts Regulations, Title 322 CMR 6.00, Section 6.13
7
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 130 Section 44A
8
Mass.gov. Buoy Line Trap Gear Modifications
9
NOAA Fisheries. Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan
10
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 130, Section 2
11
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 130 Section 44 – Sale or Possession of Short Lobsters; Mutilation of Short Lobsters; Prima Facie Evidence
12
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 130 Section 1 – Definitions; Rules of Construction