When Is Lobster Season in Maine? Closures, Sizes, and Zones

Lobster season in Maine runs all year. There is no statewide opening date and no statewide closure, so legally harvested lobster can be pulled from Maine waters in January just as in July. What changes through the year is the catch itself: most lobsters are landed between late June and December, when warmer water pushes them inshore and triggers molting. Federal whale-protection rules, size limits, licensing requirements, and zone trap caps apply every day the season is open, which is every day.

Seasonal Area Closures for Right Whales

The one place “season” shows up on a Maine lobster calendar is in federal whale rules. Under the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, certain areas off the Maine coast close seasonally to trap gear to protect North Atlantic right whales from entanglement. The boundaries and dates shift as scientists update what they know about whale migration, and NOAA can impose dynamic management areas on short notice when whales are sighted in a given zone.1NOAA Fisheries. Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan

If you fish traps in federal waters or near a closure line, check current NOAA notices before setting gear. The closures are the exception to Maine’s year-round rule, and ignoring one does not get treated as a technicality.

Size Limits That Apply Year-Round

Every lobster you keep has to fit a narrow size window. Maine law prohibits buying, selling, transporting, or possessing a lobster with a carapace shorter than 3ΒΌ inches or longer than 5 inches.2Maine Legislature. Maine Code Title 12 Section 6431 – Lobster Measurement The carapace is measured from the rear of the eye socket to the end of the body shell with a gauge certified by the Department of Marine Resources.

The minimum protects juveniles so they can reproduce before harvest. The maximum protects large females that produce disproportionately more eggs. Both ends of the range are enforced hard: possession of undersized or oversized lobsters is a Class D crime with a mandatory $500 fine plus $100 for each of the first five illegal lobsters and $200 for each lobster beyond that. If officers cannot determine the exact count, the fine ranges from $1,000 to $5,000.3Maine State Legislature. Mandatory Fines – Set Amount

Egg-Bearing Females and the V-Notch Rule

A second category of lobster is off-limits regardless of size: breeding females. If you catch an egg-bearing female, you must cut a small V-shaped notch into the right flipper next to the middle tail flipper before releasing her. That notch has been mandatory since 2002 and marks the lobster as a proven breeder. It stays illegal to keep her even after the eggs are gone and the notch has partially grown back.

The statute prohibits possessing any egg-bearing lobster or any female with a V-notch, or with any mutilation that could hide one.4Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 12 Section 6436 – Egg-Bearing Lobsters and V-Notched Lobsters The penalties:

  • V-notched females: $500 base fine, plus $100 per lobster for the first five and $400 for each additional lobster. Indeterminable counts run $1,000 to $5,000.
  • Egg-bearing females: $1,000 base fine, plus $200 per lobster for the first five and $400 for each additional lobster. Indeterminable counts run $2,500 to $10,000.3Maine State Legislature. Mandatory Fines – Set Amount
  • Scrubbing or otherwise removing eggs from a female: $1,000 base fine plus $300 per lobster, or $1,000 to $5,000 for indeterminable counts.

Courts cannot suspend any of these fines, and because the underlying offenses are Class D misdemeanors, a conviction can also carry up to 364 days in jail.

Who Needs a License

Any lobster fishing in Maine waters requires a license from the Department of Marine Resources. There is no “free day” and no over-the-counter sport license that lets a visitor drop a trap off a dock. The options:5Maine Legislature. Maine Code Title 12 Section 6421 – Lobster and Crab Fishing Licenses

  • Commercial licenses (Class I, II, and III) authorize fishing for, possessing, transporting, and selling lobster and crab. The three classes differ by crew size and operational factors.
  • An apprentice license lets the holder fish only aboard a sponsor’s vessel while the sponsor is on board. An applicant can name up to three sponsors, each a Class I, II, or III license holder.
  • A student license is available ages 8 through 22. Trap limits scale with age: 10 traps at 8 through 10, 50 traps at 11 through 13, and 150 traps at 14 through 22.
  • A noncommercial license allows personal harvest only, up to 5 traps. It does not permit selling lobster or possessing lobster meat removed from the shell.

For most residents who want to put a few traps in the water for their own table, the noncommercial 5-trap license is the realistic entry point. The commercial path is longer. Before anyone can get a commercial license, they have to complete Maine’s apprenticeship program, which requires at least two years of practical fishing experience under a licensed sponsor and is open to anyone age 8 or older holding an apprentice or student license.6Justia Law. Maine Code Title 12 Section 6422 – Apprentice Program Even after the apprenticeship, commercial zones are functionally limited-entry; some maintain waiting lists.

A new commercial licensee cannot buy a full year’s worth of trap tags right away either. First-year holders are capped at 300 tags and can add 100 per year until they reach their zone limit.7Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 12 Section 6431-F – Trap Tags

Zones and Trap Limits

Maine divides its coast into lobster management zones A through G. On the license application, the holder declares which zone they will fish the majority of their traps in, and fishing in a zone not listed on the license is prohibited.8Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 12 Section 6446 – Lobster Management Zones

Most zones cap commercial license holders at 800 traps. Zone E is the exception at 600.9Cornell Law Institute. 13-188 CMR Ch 25 Section 10 – Lobster Trap Limits Established Each zone has its own management policy council of local license holders that proposes rules on trap limits, trawl requirements, and fishing hours. The commissioner can adopt or reject those proposals but cannot modify them, and proposed rules must pass a referendum vote among the zone’s license holders before taking effect.

Every trap in the water also has to carry a valid trap tag for the current license year. Fishing a trap without a valid tag is treated the same as fishing over the trap limit.

Penalties Worth Knowing Before You Set Gear

Maine’s general penalty provision sets a floor of $100 per civil violation for breaking any DMR rule, but that provision applies only when no other penalty is specified.10Maine Legislature. Maine Code Title 12 Section 6174 – Rules as Law; Proof of Rules; Penalty For most lobster violations, another penalty is specified, and it is steeper.

  • Undersized or oversized lobsters: $500 base plus $100 per lobster for the first five, $200 per lobster beyond five; $1,000 to $5,000 for indeterminable counts.
  • V-notched females: $500 base plus $100 per lobster for the first five, $400 per lobster beyond five.
  • Egg-bearing females: $1,000 base plus $200 per lobster for the first five, $400 beyond five.
  • Removing eggs from a female: $1,000 base plus $300 per lobster.
  • Taking lobsters by dragging, trawling, or netting: $100 per lobster for the first five, $200 beyond five.3Maine State Legislature. Mandatory Fines – Set Amount
  • Fishing over the trap limit: license suspension of 3 to 10 years on a first conviction; permanent revocation on a second.11Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 12 Section 6402-D – Suspension or Revocation Based on Conviction of Fishing Over Trap Limit

Mandatory fines cannot be suspended by the court. Someone caught with ten undersized lobsters is looking at a minimum $1,500 fine ($500 base plus $100 for each of the first five and $200 for each of the remaining five) before any additional criminal consequences. Most of these violations are Class D crimes, which carry up to 364 days of potential jail time.

Marine Patrol officers can board vessels and inspect traps, crates, and containers without a warrant when they have probable cause to believe illegal lobsters are inside.12Maine Legislature. Maine Code Title 12 Section 6025 – Marine Patrol Officers At-sea checks of lobster size, egg and V-notch status, trap counts against tag records, and gear configuration are routine. The season is always open, but the rules are always on.