Code of Massachusetts Regulations › 322 CMR - Division of Marine Fisheries › Title 322 CMR 6.00 - Regulation of Catches › Section 6.34 - Horseshoe Crab Management

Current through Register 1525, July 5, 2024
(1)
Purpose
. The Division of Marine Fisheries manages
			 horseshoe crabs in compliance with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
			 Commission's Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Horseshoe Crabs.
			 Additionally, DMF manages local horseshoe crab populations to ensure the
			 resource is available for current and future generations for use as a
			 commercial fishery resource, in biomedical applications, for education and
			 scientific research, and to provide cultural and ecological services. This
			 requires the Division of Marine Fisheries control harvest and mortality across
			 all fisheries and provide for spawning opportunities.
(2)
Definitions
.
Asian Horseshoe Crab
means those
				species of horseshoe crab identified as
Carcinoscorpius
				rotundicauda
,
Tachypleus gigas
and
Tachypleus
				tridentatus
.
Bait Fishery Quota
means the total
				annual allowable harvest of horseshoe crabs for the bait fishery to be
				established by the Division of Marine Fisheries.
Biomedical Fisher
means any person who
				has been issued a special biomedical horseshoe crab harvest permit by the
				Director in accordance with
				322
				CMR 7.01(4)(f) allowing the
				retention, possession, and landing of horseshoe crabs for biomedical or
				research purposes and direct sale to a biomedical dealer or biomedical
				processor or research institution authorized by the Director to conduct
				biomedical or research activities.
Biomedical Dealer
means any person or
				entity, permitted in accordance with M.G.L. c. 130, § 80 and
				322
				CMR 7.01(3), who has a
				contractual relationship with a biomedical processor and authorized at
				322
				CMR 7.07:
Dealers Acting as Primary
				Buyers
to conduct a primary purchase of horseshoe crabs from a
				biomedical fisher.
Biomedical Processor
means any person
				or entity, permitted in accordance with M.G.L. c. 130, § 80 and
				322
				CMR 7.01(3) and authorized
				by the Director to process horseshoe crabs for biomedical purposes.
Biomedical Processor Quota
means the
				total annual allowable harvest of horseshoe crabs for biomedical processing in
				Massachusetts assigned by the Division in equal shares to each permitted
				biomedical processor.
Cape Cod National Seashore
means that
				area of land and waters located in Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham,
				Orleans, and Chatham under the control of the United States Department of the
				Interior's National Park Service pursuant to
				16 U.S.C.
				459b.
Commercial Fisher
means any person
				permitted in accordance with M.G.L. c. 130, § 80 and
				322
				CMR 7.01(2) to participate
				in the commercial bait fishery for horseshoe crabs and retain, possess, and
				land horseshoe crabs for purpose of sale, barter, or exchange or any person who
				keeps for personal or family use any horseshoe crab taken under the authority
				of said permit.
Director
means the Director of the
				Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.
Division
means the Massachusetts
				Division of Marine Fisheries.
Horseshoe Crab
means the species known
				as
Limulus polyphemus
.
Land
means to transfer or attempt to
				transfer the catch of horseshoe crabs from any vessel to any other vessel or
				onto any land, pier, ramp, wharf, dock or other artificial structure, or for a
				fishing vessel with any horseshoe crabs onboard to tie-up to any pier, wharf,
				dock, or artificial structure.
Mobile Gear
means any moveable gear or
				encircling fishing gear or nets, which are towed, hauled or dragged through the
				water for the harvest of fish. This includes, but is not limited to, pair
				trawls, otter trawls, beam trawls, mid-water trawls, Scottish seines, pair
				seines, purse seines or shellfish dredges.
Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge
means
				that area of lands and waters located in Chatham under the control of the
				United States Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service. The
				boundaries thereof are described in the October 30, 2015 Notice of Availability
				for the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge Final Comprehensive Conservation Plan
				and Environmental Impact Statement at 80 F.R. 66928; published in the March
				2016
Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation
				Plan
; and first established in 1944
via
the
				Declaration of the Taking filed by the Department of the Interior with the
				Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Primary Purchase
means the first
				commercial transaction by sale, barter, or exchange of horseshoe crabs after
				its harvest.
Total Mortality
means the number of
				horseshoe crabs harvested in the biomedical horseshoe crab fishery that died
				during harvest, handling, transportation, storage, penning, processing, and
				release.
Trawl
means a fishing practice that
				herds or captures target species by towing a net through the ocean.
Trip
means that period of time that
				begins when a fishing vessel departs from a dock, berth, beach, seawall, ramp
				or port to carry out commercial fishing operations and that ends with a return
				to a dock, berth seawall, ramp or port.
Trip Limit
means the maximum lawful
				amount of horseshoe crabs that a commercial fisher or biomedical fisher may
				retain, possess, or land within the Commonwealth or sell, barter or exchange or
				offer for sale barter or exchange. Trip limits apply per trip or per calendar
				day, whichever period of time is longer and are applied to the vessel named on
				the commercial fishing permit regardless of the number of commercial fishing
				permits or letters of authorization carried on board the vessel.
(3)
General
			 Restrictions
.
(a)
Non-Commercial Possession Limit
. It shall be unlawful
			 for any person to retain, possess, or land more than six horseshoe crabs per
			 day, unless authorized at
			 322
			 CMR 6.34(4) or
			 322
			 CMR 6.34(5). Any horseshoe
			 crabs retained under this non-commercial possession limit shall be maintained
			 only for personal or family use and shall not be sold, bartered, exchanged, or
			 offered for sale, barter, or exchange.
(b)
Spawning
			 Closure
. It shall be unlawful for any fisher to harvest, possess,
			 or land horseshoe crabs from April 15th through June
			 7th.
(c)
Asian Horseshoe Crab
. It shall be unlawful to possess,
			 purchase, import, transport, sell, barter, exchange, purchase, or offer for
			 sale, barter or exchange Asian horseshoe crabs or to release into the waters
			 under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth any Asian horseshoe crabs.
(d)
Cape Cod National
			 Seashore
. It shall be unlawful for any person to harvest horseshoe
			 crabs within the boundaries of the Cape Cod National Seashore.
(e)
Monomoy National Wildlife
			 Refuge
. It shall be unlawful for any person to harvest horseshoe
			 crabs within the boundaries of the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.
(f)
Authority to Temporarily
			 Close Areas to Harvest of Horseshoe Crabs
. The Director may
			 temporarily close any area within the waters under the jurisdiction of the
			 Commonwealth to harvest of horseshoe crabs, subject to the procedure below:
1. It has been approved by a majority of the
			 members of the Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission;
2. A Declaration of Closure has been filed
			 with the Massachusetts Secretary of State for publication in the Massachusetts
			 Register;
3. A Declaration of
			 Closure has been published in a local newspaper of record and posted on the
			 Division's Legal Notice website; and
4. A Declaration of Closure has been
			 distributed
via
the Division's e-mail list serve and directly
			 to any and all affected permit holders.