104 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



PUBLIC LAWS. 



CHAPTER 969. 



AN ACT IN SUBSTITUTION OF CHAPTER 857 OF THE PUBLIC LAWS, 

 PASSED AT THE JANUARY SESSION, A. D. 1901, ENTITLED "AN 

 ACT FOR THE BETTER PROTECTION OF THE LOBSTER FISH- 

 ERIES." 



Section 1. Every person who catches, takes, or has in his or her possession 

 any lolister less than nine inches in length, measuring from the end of the bone 

 projecting from the head to the end of the bone of the middle flipper of the tail, 

 the lobster extended on its back its natural length, and e^■ery person who has in 

 his or her possession any cooked lobster less than eight and three-quarters 

 inches in length, and eAery person who has in his or her possession any female 

 lobster bearing eggs or from which the eggs ha^'e been bnished or removed, shall 

 Ije fined five dollars for e^ery svich lobster; but a person catching or taking 

 any such li\e lobster and inmiediately returning the same ali^■e to the water 

 from which taken shall not be subject to such fine. The possession of any such 

 lobster, cooked or uncooked, not of the prescribed length, shall be prima facie 

 evidence to convict. 



Sec. 2. All lobster pots, cars, and other contri\ances used for the catching 

 or keeping of lobsters shall be plainly marked w'ith the name or names of the 

 owner or owners. And every person who shall not have his lobster pots, cars, 

 or other contrivances so marked shall be fined twenty dollars and be imprisoned 

 not more than thirty days for each such offence. .And all pots, cars, and other 

 contrivances used contrary to the provisions of this section shall be seized by 

 the officer engaged in the enforcement of this law, and said property shall be 

 forfeited. 



Sec. 3. There shall be, between the fifteenth day of Novemlier and the fif- 

 teenth day of April next succeeding, a close time, during which time it shall l)e 

 inilawful for any person to set or keep, or cause to be set or kept, witliiu any of 

 the waters of this state, any pots or nets for the catching of lobsters, or to take 

 any lobsters during such close time. Every person violating any of the provisions 

 of this section shall be fined twenty dollars and l)e imprisoned not more than 

 thirty days for each such offence. 



