June 23, 2025 — Cape Cod lobstermen are trying to fend off state and federal regulations that they say could put them out of business in an effort that an attorney describes as a “misguided push for uniformity.”
Beginning July 1, lobstermen will face strict rules when harvesting certain female lobsters in state and federal waters around outer Cape Cod, extending from Chatham to Provincetown’s Race Point, including a part of upper Cape Cod Bay.
The Outer Cape Lobstermen’s Association, a group of roughly 70 Massachusetts-licensed lobster trap fishers, is fighting back against the state Division of Marine Fisheries and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, reopening a decades-old federal complaint.
The dispute will be heard in a status conference scheduled for Monday in Boston federal court.
Lobstermen in the Outer Cape Cod Conservation Management Area have been allowed to catch so-called V-notched lobsters under a 2000 settlement, but the rules set to go into effect next week will essentially ban that fishing, according to an attorney for the association.
In 2000, the association and the Commonwealth established a “regulatory regime” for outer Cape Cod distinct from other lobster conservation management areas in the state. The settlement permitted lobstermen in the region to fish for most V-notched lobsters in exchange for stricter gauge size requirements.