MASHPEE – New shellfish regulations were approved by the Mashpee Select Board that went into effect last week.
As of July 15, three changes were made to current regulations.
The first change approved was increasing penalty amounts for fishing in a contaminated area.
The change was inspired by a shift in Massachusetts General Law which established a similar penalty structure.
The amounts are going from between $300 and $2,000 to between $500 and $10,000.
The second change was a shift in scallop farming permitting laws to prohibit commercial and recreational harvesting within a shellfish aquaculture license.
The third and final change was the establishment of a new harvest time for oyster harvesting between November 1 to March 31.
“It is also not safe to have the public harvest oysters outside of those dates,” explained Ashley Fisher, shellfish constable for Mashpee’s Department of Natural Resources.
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