State. Regulations for the State of Maine encompass 

 the following areas: 



1 . Gear or Method of Capture: Gear is restricted to 

 pots and traps. 



2. License Requirements: To fish in Maine, there is 

 a three-year residence requirement. The annual 

 license fee is minimal at $10 per boat per year. 



3. Size Limitation: The size of the lobster is limited 

 to not less than 3'Vi(i in. as measured from the rear end 

 of the eye socket to the rear end of the body shell. 



4. Time Limitations: Hours of fishing are pro- 

 hibited from 4:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Savings 

 Time, Saturday to one-half hour before sunrise of the 

 following Monday morning from June I to August 31 . 



5. Sex Regulations: It is a violation to catch spawn- 

 ing lobsters or lobsters from which eggs have been 

 removed, female lobsters with a V-notch in middle 

 flipper or tail, or female lobster with mutilated middle 

 flipper. 



It is not the purpose of this report to evaluate the 

 impact of these regulations on the inshore lobster 

 fishery. However, we shall briefly review the history 

 of lobster regulations in Maine over the 1641-1971 

 period. 



Attitudes generated by food needs appear to have 

 influenced the contents of the Colonial Ordinances of 

 1641-1647. Incidences like the following undoubtedly 

 contributed to these attitudes (Southgate, 1853): 



In an action brought before the first general court, 

 of the Province (Maine) in 1640, Richard Foxwell 

 of Blue Point (Scarborough) complains of Cam- 

 mock for preventing him and others from fishing for 

 bass and lobsters in Black Point River. To this 

 complaint Cammock answered: "that by virtue of 

 his Patent the Royaltie of fishing and fowling be- 

 longeth to him, and (is) not to be violently tres- 

 passed by force, and hath sustained greate damage 

 by their fishing and cominge on his ground and 

 otherwise'. . . 



Regulation of the lobster fishery greatly influenced 

 the extent and form of its development. The Great 

 Pond Ordinance of 1641 (Whittlesey, 1932) furnished 

 the foundation for all subsequent legislation and pro- 

 vided that: 



Every inhabitant that is an house holder shall have 

 free fishing and fowling in any great ponds and 

 Bayes, Coves and Rivers, so farre as the sea ebbes 

 and flows within the presincts of the towne where 

 they dwell, unless the freemen of the same Towne 

 or the Generall Court have otherwise appropriated 

 them, provided that this shall not be extended to 

 give leave to any man to come upon others prop- 

 rietie without there leave. 



The first fisheries regulations established after 

 Main became a State were designed to "protect" 

 Maine coastal residents rather than the resources, 

 which both Canadian and Massachusetts fishermen 

 were apparently exploiting with more efficiency than 

 were Maine fishermen. 



The early history of conservation is primarily a 

 history of lobster legislation of a restrictive nature. 

 The first Maine law, passed in 1823, was a regulation 

 prohibiting nonresidents from fishing in Maine waters 

 without permission of local town officials. This provi- 

 sion closely paralleled a Massachusetts statute of 

 1812, the original of all lobster regulations in this coun- 

 try. 



Between 1823 and 1872, the only lobster regulations 

 were the acts of 1848, 1852, and 1855, which prohib- 

 ited nonresidents from taking — among other species 

 — lobsters by net, weir, seine, or other device. 



Eggs and seed lobsters were first given protection 

 by the public laws of 1872, a regulation which was 

 repealed in 1874 by the establishment of a closed sea- 

 son on all lobsters from August 1 to October 15 of each 

 year. It was further provided that any lobster less than 

 lO'/i in. in length should not be caught, preserved, 

 sold, or exposed for sale between October 15 and the 

 following April 1 of each year. 



It was not until 1883 that any minimum size limit 

 was placed on the canning of lobsters during the so- 

 called open season. In addition to forbidding the can- 

 ning of egg lobsters, no lobster less than 9 in. in length 

 could be legally canned. 



Changes in lobster fishing and canning restrictions 

 were made at each legislative session during the 1870's 

 and the 1880's (Table 24). Many of these alterations 

 dealt with the ambiguous phraseology of existing regu- 

 lations, while others broadened the scope of, and ma- 

 terially amended, previous statutes. In 1889 egg lob- 

 sters were again given protection. 



Three forces contributed to the great emphasis 

 placed on regulation after 1870: the decline of the 

 coastal economy, conservation problems, and the 

 competition between canners and the dealers engaged 

 in the live lobster trade. 



An all-year minimum size limit of lO'/i in., overall 

 length, was passed in 1895. This was the law which has 



Table 24. — Summary of changes made by Maine Legislature in lobster 

 flshery regulations. 



Type of legislation 



Years in which changes 

 were made 



Laws changing legal length) 

 at which lobsters could ) 

 be taken ) 



Laws establishing closed ) 

 seasons along the Maine ) 

 Coast ) 



Laws prohibiting the tak- ) 

 ing of spawn lobster ) 



1872,1879,1883,1885, 

 1889.1891. 1895, 1933, 

 1935, 1942. 1957 



1874. 1875, 1883, 1885, 

 1887, repeal 1895' 



1872, 1874, 1883, 1885, 

 1887, 1889 (continues 

 in effect) 



'Monhegan Island fishermen have a private and special law provid- 

 ing for a closed season from June 25 to January 1. 

 Source: Sea and Shore Fisheries, State of Maine. 



29 



