142 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



PUBIilC I.AWS. 



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 lobster 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 every person who has in 

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

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

 lobster bearing eggs or from which the eggs have been brushed or removed, shall 

 be fined five dollars for every such lobster; but a person catching or taking 

 any such live lobster and immediately returning the same alive 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 contrivances used for the catching 

 or keeping of lobsters shall be plainly marked with 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 November and the fif- 

 teenth day of April next succeeding, a close-time, during which time it shall be 

 unlawful for any person to set or keep, or cause to be set or kept, within 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 be imprisoned not more than 

 thirty days for each such offence. 



