Code of Massachusetts Regulations › 321 CMR - DIVISION OF FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE › Title 321 CMR 4.00 - Fishing › Section 4.09 - Propagation, Culture, Maintenance and Sale of Protected Freshwater Fish

Current through Register 1525, July 5, 2024
(1) Purpose and Scope. The purpose of 321 CMR
			 4.09 is to establish the procedural and substantive requirements for licenses
			 for the possession, propagation, culture, maintenance, sale, purchase and
			 disposition of fish. The provisions of 321 CMR 4.09 are designed to protect
			 fish and their habitats from unnecessary or undesirable impacts and from
			 improper treatment or exploitation. These provisions are also necessary for the
			 protection of the public health, welfare and safety when fish are possessed,
			 maintained, cultured or propagated in Massachusetts.
Fish retained in captivity and dependent on humans for care may
				not be capable of surviving in the wild if problems arise and they are
				liberated by those who had attempted to care for them. The result is an animal
				that may suffer a lingering fate prior to death and may be a potential danger
				to the public or the aquatic environment. The purpose of 321 CMR 4.09 is to
				prevent not only the potential public menace, disease, or damage to the
				environment which may result when the fish are liberated, but to protect them
				from the potential for needless or unnecessary suffering as well. Thus, the
				scope of 321 CMR 4.09 is to (a) regulate the taking from the wild, possession,
				propagation, purchase, receipt or sale of protected fish intended to be kept by
				any person in Massachusetts; (b) define specific categories for which licenses
				may be issued for the possession, maintenance, propagation or culture, or sale
				of protected fish; (c) establish minimum requirements for the possession,
				maintenance and culture or propagation of protected fish; (d) establish
				administrative procedures for the initial issuance and subsequent renewal of
				licenses, and (e) otherwise implement the licensing provisions of M.G.L. c.
				131, § 23.
(2)
			 Definitions. For the purposes of 321 CMR 4.09, the following words have the
			 following meanings:
Aquaculture means the propagation, culture and maintenance of
				fish for the purpose of selling such fish or a product derived from such fish
				in the regular course of business, or the culture of fish pursuant to a class 1
				or class 2 license, but not including the scientific or educational
				propagation, culture and maintenance of fish, or the sale of exempt live fish
				as pets in a pet shop as regulated pursuant to M.G.L. c. 129.
Aquarium means a permanent site or a permanent location of less
				than 4356 square feet of surface area where a collection of living
				nondomesticated animals are maintained for regular exhibition to the public or
				as pets, and includes a zoo as defined in
				321
				CMR 2.12(2).
Class 1 - Class 3, and Class 6 Licenses means respectively
				licenses issued under authority of clauses 1 through 3, and clause 6, M.G.L. c.
				131, § 23.
Culture means to use an artificial or enhanced natural
				environment in order to induce growth, development, or reproduction.
Director means the Director of the Division of Fisheries and
				Wildlife or his agents.
Division means the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and
				Wildlife, 251 Causeway Street, Boston, MA 02114 (telephone
				617-626-1590).
Educational Use means a use or uses as contained in a course of
				training, of any extent or duration, and which pertains to the acquisition,
				development, or maintenance of a person's moral, intellectual, vocational, and
				physical faculties, insofar as such course of training shall relate to
				fisheries or wildlife, and the habitats, ecological relationships, or the
				environment thereof.
Expansion means an increase in the area used to hold fish
				during culture or maintenance.
Fish means any vertebrate of the classes Cyclostomata or
				Osteichtheyes not otherwise exempted in the exemption list found at
				321 CMR 9.01, and
				shall additionally include the parts, spawn and viable eggs thereof.
Gender means, unless the context requires otherwise, that words
				importing the masculine gender shall include the feminine and neuter.
Maintain means that fish are kept in indoor or outdoor
				confinement by a person or otherwise held under artificial conditions which
				allows exclusive control over them. Fish which are maintained remain in the
				same physical condition and life stage at which they were obtained by the
				permittee. Such fish may be supplied with food, or are otherwise cared for, but
				are not bred or allowed to reproduce.
Native means fish species that either occur or have occurred
				within Massachusetts, provided that the original occurrence of such species was
				not the result of deliberate or accidental introductions by humans.
Naturalized means fish species that have been introduced to
				Massachusetts by humans and have established selfsustaining populations.
Navigable Waters means all waters in creeks, coves, inlets, and
				arms of the sea or rivers that are:
1.
			 within the ebb and flow of the tide, or
2. defined as navigable by the U.S. Army
			 Corps of Engineers.
Permit or License means a license issued pursuant to M.G.L. c.
				131, § 23.
Person means any individual, corporation, partnership, trust,
				association or other private entity or any officer, agent, department or
				instrumentality of the federal government or any state or its political
				subdivisions, including but not limited to any agency, department, board,
				commission or authority thereof.
Propagate means the natural or artificial reproduction of
				fish.
Scientific Use means a use or uses concerned with the
				classification, formulation, verification, and documentation of various natural
				laws, principles, and events by induction, deduction, hypothesis, and
				experimentation, including, but not limited to, the collection, analysis,
				propounding, and display of data, whether written, recorded or otherwise, and
				of artifacts, specimens, and similar physical samples, and shall further relate
				generally to the physical world and its associated phenomena, and specifically
				to those branches of systematized knowledge categorized as zoology, botany,
				ecology, wildlife management, fisheries management, medicine, and veterinary
				medicine, or such other skills and disciplines which shall require such use or
				uses.