Applicant - any individual, partnership, corporation, firm, business, club, organization, association, municipality, or any other commercial or non-commercial entity.

Aquaculture - the propagation, culture, and maintenance of fish under a Class 1, 2, or 3 permit.

Bait fish - the following fish are considered bait fish in Massachusetts and may be captured for personal use: American eel, white sucker, creek chubsucker, banded killifish, mummichog, pumpkinseed, golden shiner, emerald shiner, spottail shiner, rainbow smelt, yellow perch, fallfish.

Commercial bait fish - the following fish are considered commercial bait fish in Massachusetts: white sucker, mummichog, golden shiner, emerald shiner, spottail shiner, fallfish.

Culch - Hard material (usually broken oyster/clam/scallop shells) laid down in intertidal area to attract spat.

Culture - to use an artificial environment or an altered or enhanced natural environment in order to induce fish growth, development through life stages, or reproduction.

Director - the Director of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife or his agent.

Discharge - (Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. Section 1362) The addition of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source, (or) the addition of any pollutant to the waters of the contiguous zone or the ocean from any point source other than a vessel or other floating craft.

Division - the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

Expansion - an increase in the area of an aquaculture facility used to hold fish during culture or maintenance.

Ex-vessel price - Price that fishermen receive for their catch. "Off the boat price"

Farm gate value - Price that aquaculturists receive for their products. "off the farm price"

Fish - any vertebrate of the class Cyclostomata or Osteichthyes or parts, spawn, or viable eggs thereof inhabiting freshwater.

Great Pond - a natural pond the area of which is twenty (20) acres or more.

Maintain - to keep fish in indoor or outdoor confinement or otherwise hold them under artificial conditions that allow the person exclusive control over the fish. Fish that are maintained may be supplied with food or otherwise cared for to sustain life but not to induce growth or allow reproduction.

Native - a species that either occurs, or has occurred within Massachusetts, provided that the original occurrence of such species is not the result of deliberate or accidental introductions by humans.

Naturalized - fish species that were introduced by humans and have established self-sustaining, reproducing populations.

Navigable Waters - all waters, creeks, coves, inlets, and arms of the sea or rivers that are: 1) under tidal influence; or 2) defined as navigable by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers under the Rivers and Harbors Act.

Non-point Source - Pollution source not confined to a discrete conveyance (i.e. agricultural runoff, return flows from irrigation, and stormwater discharges.)

NPDES - National Pollution Discharge Elimination System. Permit issued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for point sources of pollution (i.e., outfalls, drains).

Point Source - Any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants may be discharged.

Propagate - to take specific measures to encourage the natural or artificial reproduction of fish.

Stock - to release fish into the waters of the Commonwealth. A liberation permit is required for all releases that are not specifically allowed by other aquaculture permits.

Toxics - Heavy metals such as lead, copper, and mercury as well as a broad class of pollutants known as organics. Organic pollutants include such petroleum based compounds as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) and pesticides. Filter feeding bivalves tend to accumulate cadmium and mercury as well as PCB's.

Wildlife - amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Click here to go back to the Table of Contents for The Massachusetts Aquaculture White Paper

Published: September 1995