- Division of Marine Fisheries
Below find the changes made to DMF fishing rules by regulation, emergency action, and in-season adjustment from July 1, 2025 – December 31, 2025. Regulatory changes follow an extensive public process and remain in effect permanently unless otherwise amended; emergency actions go into effect immediately upon adoption without public comment but for a period of 90 days only (unless extended on a permanent basis following the public process); and in-season adjustments go into effect immediately upon adoption after a truncated public process but affect that calendar year only.
Commercial Striped Bass Permitting (322 CMR 6.07, 7.01, 7.04, 7.06).
On November 21, 2025, DMF enacted emergency regulations affecting permitting in the commercial striped bass fishery for 2026. Specifically, these regulations: (1) limit the issuance of the regulated fishery striped bass endorsement (“endorsement”) in 2026 to only individuals who held the endorsement in 2024 or 2025; (2) establish the endorsement as non-transferable; and (3) update the striped bass control date from June 14, 2022 to December 31, 2025. Based on public comment received in the emergency regulations, DMF intends to rescind the owner-operator requirement for 2026. However, final rule making remains on-going at the time of this update.
Lobster Management (322 CMR 6.02).
DMF adopted final regulations to make permanent previously adopted emergency regulations to rescind previously adopted minimum and maximum carapace size standards and escape vent changes consistent with Addendum XXXII to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Lobster. This action has the following effects: (1) the minimum carapace size standard will remain 3 ¼” for commercial fishers in Lobster Conservation Management Area 1 (LCMA1) and recreational fishers in the Gulf of Maine Management Area; (2) the minimum escape vent size will remain at either 1 15/16” by 5 ¾” rectangular or 2 7/16” diameter circular for commercial fishers in LCMA1 and recreational fishers in the Gulf of Maine Management Area; (3) the maximum carapace size will remain 6 ¾” for commercial fishers in LCMA 3; (4) the maximum carapace size will remain 6 ¾” for commercial fishers in Outer Cape Cod (OCC) LCMA who hold a federal lobster permit; (5) there will remain no maximum carapace size for commercial state-only OCCLCMA permit holders and recreational fishers in the Outer Cape Cod Management Area; and (6) for seafood dealers, all pending changes to the minimum and maximum carapace size rules are rescinded consistent with the above described actions.
2026 Period I Summer Flounder Limit (322 CMR 6.20).
Through DMF’s in-season adjustment authority, the Period I (January 1–April 22) summer flounder trip limit is increasing from 2,000 pounds to 4,000 pounds for 2026. This action was taken to provide the larger vessels fishing offshore in federal waters during the wintertime with greater access to the available quota to support its utilization to the benefit of Massachusetts seafood industry. The Commonwealth’s commercial summer flounder quota is increasing by 75% for 2026, moving from roughly 600,000 pounds to just over 1 million pounds in response to the most recent stock assessment’s indication of increasing biomass, as well as a Massachusetts receiving a larger share of the coastwide quota.
By Jared Silva, Policy Analyst
