211:27 Legal Length; Rulemaking. –
I. No person may transport, buy, sell, give away, or expose for sale, or possess for any purpose, any lobster less than the minimum legal length alive or dead, cooked or uncooked, measuring from the rear of the eye socket along a line parallel to the center line of the body shell to the rear end of the body shell. The minimum legal length shall be determined in rules adopted by the executive director under RSA 211:62. This paragraph shall not apply to uncooked shell-on lobster tails processed onshore in a New Hampshire facility permitted under RSA 211:38-a or a similar facility outside of New Hampshire.
II. (a) Whoever ships, transports, carries, buys, gives away, sells, or exposes for sale, or possesses for any purpose, lobster meat, which has been cooked, before or after the meat has been taken from the shell, without the tail meat being whole and intact, and of a length determined in rules adopted by the executive director under RSA 211:62, shall be guilty of a violation of this section.
(b) All lobster meat shall be delivered in containers marked as prescribed by rules adopted by the executive director.
(c) For the purpose of this paragraph cooked lobster meat taken from the shell shall be laid out straight and measured from end to end and it shall not include the small part that is on the body end of the tail meat.
III. (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs I and II, no person licensed pursuant to RSA 211:18 shall take, possess, or land any lobster greater than the maximum legal length from or on the waters under the jurisdiction of the state.
(b) A person not licensed to take lobster in accordance with RSA 211:18 may possess, transport, or land in accordance with RSA 211:49-a, RSA 211:49-aa, RSA 211:49-b, RSA 211:49-c, and RSA 211:49-d lobster greater than the maximum legal length if the lobster was legally taken from waters outside the jurisdiction of the state.
(c) The maximum length shall be measured from the rear of the eye socket along a line parallel to the center line of the body shell to the rear end of the body shell. The maximum legal length shall be determined by rules adopted by the executive director under RSA 211:62.
(d) All lobster possessed in accordance with this paragraph shall be whole and intact.