Commercial Lobster Season in Massachusetts: Permits, Traps, Gear

The commercial lobster season in Massachusetts runs year-round with one major interruption: commercial trap fishers may not fish, set, maintain, or abandon trap gear in state waters from February 1 through May 15 each year, with waters inside Lobster Conservation Management Area 2 (Southern New England, south of Cape Cod) exempt from that closure.¹ To fish commercially at all, you need a Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) permit tied to a specific management area, and you have to work inside that area’s trap cap, size limits, V-notch rules, and gear requirements. Everything below walks through what that looks like in practice.

When You Can Fish

The February 1 to May 15 closure exists to keep buoy lines out of the water during the period when North Atlantic right whales are most likely to be in Massachusetts waters. The DMF Director can extend the closure past May 15 or lift it after April 30 based on documented right whale presence, and those adjustments are published as a Notice of Declaration in the Massachusetts Register and sent out through the DMF email list.¹ If you fish Area 1 (Gulf of Maine) or the Outer Cape, build the closure into your planning; if you fish LCMA 2, you can work year-round, though you still have to meet all other rules.

The Permit You Need

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 are tied to a specific Lobster Conservation Management Area (LCMA), which determines your trap allocation and size rules. Every trap you deploy must carry a valid trap tag linking it back to your permit and your management area.³

Federal Permit for the EEZ

If you fish beyond state waters in the Exclusive Economic Zone, you need a federal lobster permit from NOAA Fisheries on top of your state permit. Federal permits renew annually, with 2025 permits expiring April 30, 2026. At renewal you select the federal management areas you intend to fish, and those areas appear on your 2026 trap tags. Holders of non-trap federal permits (diving or by hand, for example) don’t select a management area and don’t buy trap tags.⁴

For 2026, federal trap fishers must have valid 2026 tags on every fished trap by June 1, 2026, and those tags stay valid through May 31, 2027. Only tags from the authorized vendor, Cambridge Security Seals, count after June 1.⁴

Trap Limits by Management Area

Each management area caps the number of traps you can fish:

Area 1 (Gulf of Maine): 800 traps
Area 2 (Southern New England): 800 traps, limited access — you can only fish traps previously qualified and allocated into this area
Area 3 (Offshore): 1,945 traps, also limited access

Massachusetts mirrors the 800-trap cap for LCMA 1 at the state level and holds vessels to 800 traps regardless of how many permitted fishers are on board.⁵ If your federal permit covers more than one management area, you have to follow the most restrictive rule from any of those areas for the whole fishing year, no matter where you actually drop gear on a given day.⁶

Size Limits You Must Measure To

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 sizes apply, and they vary by area:

LCMA 1 (Gulf of Maine): Minimum 3¼ inches, maximum 5 inches³
LCMA 2 (Southern New England): Minimum 3⅜ inches, maximum 5¼ inches⁶
Area 3 (Offshore): Minimum 3¹⁷⁄₃₂ inches, maximum 6¾ inches⁶

Dealers are also prohibited from buying or selling lobsters outside these size windows, so an undersized or oversized lobster isn’t marketable anywhere in the chain.³

V-Notched and Egg-Bearing Females

When you catch 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 That mark identifies her as a proven breeder and persists through several molts, keeping her protected long after her eggs are 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 use a slightly less strict “standard” V-notch definition, but possessing a V-notched female remains illegal.⁶ Enforcement officers pay close attention here, and “I didn’t notice” is not a workable defense.

Gear You Must Use Year-Round

Massachusetts specifies the traps themselves and the lines that connect them to buoys. The core trap requirements:

Escape vents built to specific dimensions so undersized lobsters and non-target species can leave the trap on their own.³
A ghost panel in the parlor section made of or fastened with biodegradable material that degrades within about 12 months, so lost traps stop fishing. It must be unobstructed and placed on the sides, end, or top of the parlor section.³
A valid trap tag matching your permit and management area, plus state gear-marking compliance.³

Buoy line rules apply to all commercial trap fishers in state waters year-round. Every buoy line must break at 1,700 pounds of tension, achieved either with manufactured weak buoy line or with NOAA-approved weak inserts placed every 60 feet through the top 75% of the line. Buoy line diameter cannot exceed ⅜ inch.⁸

Color marking depends on where you fish. In state waters, you need one solid red mark of at least 3 feet 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, two in the top half and two in the bottom half, spaced no more than 60 feet apart. In federal waters, LCMA 1, LCMA 2, and the Outer Cape, the surface system needs one solid red mark of at least 3 feet with a solid green mark of at least 1 foot no more than 6 inches below it, and the body of the line needs three marks in the top, middle, and bottom thirds, each at least 1 foot of red and 1 foot of green.⁸ The federal Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan layers on sinking groundline and minimum traps-per-trawl requirements in federal waters.⁹

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

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

Short lobsters carry their own per-lobster schedule. A first offense runs $100 to $500 per lobster. Subsequent offenses run $500 to $1,000 per lobster, or one to three months in jail, or both, and the lobsters are seized and forfeited.¹¹ Twenty shorts on a first offense can mean $2,000 to $10,000 from one encounter.

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 it.¹² Dealers and buyers, not just fishers, are exposed.

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 prison terms up to five or ten years and fines up to $250,000 or twice the defendant’s financial gain, whichever is greater. These cases usually involve large-scale trafficking, but the statute reaches anyone who knowingly moves illegally harvested lobster through interstate commerce.

Self-Employment and Fuel Tax

If you fish commercially as a self-employed individual, you file a federal income tax return and owe self-employment tax once your net earnings hit $400 for the year. Self-employment tax runs 15.3% of net earnings: 12.4% Social Security and 2.9% Medicare. For 2026, the Social Security portion applies to the first $184,500 in combined wages and self-employment income; the Medicare portion has no cap. Income and expenses go on Schedule C (Form 1040); self-employment tax is calculated on Schedule SE. Crew members paid based on the catch may qualify for a self-employment tax exception if their pay does not exceed $100 per trip and the boat’s operating crew normally numbers fewer than ten.¹³

On fuel, commercial fishing vessels may qualify for an exemption from the federal excise tax on fuel used as vessel supplies, provided the vessel is used exclusively in the fisheries business. To claim it at the pump, the owner or an authorized agent gives the fuel seller a properly executed exemption certificate; if the tax has already been paid, a credit or refund may be available.¹⁴

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
Justia. Code of Massachusetts Regulations, Title 322 CMR 6.00, Section 6.13
6
eCFR. Part 697 Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management
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
13
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Guide for Small Business
14
eCFR. Part 48 Manufacturers and Retailers Excise Taxes