The Massachusetts Environmental Police is a Massachusetts, US, state government law enforcement agency, which is the primary enforcement agency of Massachusetts's boating and recreation vehicle laws and regulations and is responsible for registering boats, off-highway vehicles and snowmobiles in Massachusetts. The agency is also responsible for the enforcement of fish and game laws, including commercial and recreational harvesting of the living marine resources along the state's coastline.
Mission The mission of the Office of Law Enforcement, more commonly known as the Massachusetts Environmental Police, is to protect the environment and natural resources of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through enforcement, education, and public outreach. The Office is further charged with protecting the health, safety, and individual rights of the public and preserving our environment for future generations.
Leadership The Massachusetts Environmental Police is led by Colonel John Monaghan of Danvers, MA. He replaced Colonel Chris Mason who was appointed in 2024 in an interim capacity.
The agency is under the supervision and control of the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, who is appointed by the Governor. The current Secretary of EOEEA is Rebecca Tepper.
History Conservation laws in the 1600s Massachusetts has had a long history of protecting its natural resources. Some of the earliest hunting and fishing laws date back to 1627 when the Colony of New Plymouth created a law that declared hunting, fowling, and fishing shall be free. The Massachusetts Bay Colony also declared hunting and fishing to be free in 1641.
"Every inhabitant who is an house-holder shall have free fishing and fowling in any great ponds, bays, coves, and rivers so far as the sea ebbs and flows within the precinct of the town where they dwell unless the freeman of the same town or general court have otherwise appropriated them."
The colony also created many laws that paid bounties for killing wolves. In 1630, the colony created a law that paid one shilling to any colonist who killed a wolf. In 1640, the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law which gave forty shillings to any man who killed a wolf with hounds. Many colonists hunted wolves because forty shillings was a sizeable bounty in 1640. The 1640 bounty was equivalent to 27 days of a laborer's pay.
"Early Massachusetts laws encouraged residents to keep dogs, such as mastiffs and greyhounds, to use in hunting wolves and authorized town governments to use public funds to purchase and keep wolf-hunting dogs. Towns were also required to set out and bait specific numbers of wolf traps. Any town that neglected its obligation to trap wolves was assessed a fine."
In 1636, a law was created which stated that no guns or iron traps could be used near the highway. During the colonial period, alewives were a very important fish used for food and fertilizer. Plymouth colony created some of the country's earliest fishing regulations to protect the alewives. In 1645, the colony created a law that prohibited the use of nets to catch alewives in the Sandwich river with a fine of ten pounds. In 1661, the Plymouth Colony banned any foreigner without permission from fishing on Cape Cod. In 1668, to protect cod, haddock, and pollock during spawning the Massachusetts Bay Colony banned all fishing in December and January. Fishing of mackerel was also banned in May and June. The penalty for fishing during the spawning period was 5 shillings per barrel.
In 1670, the position of water bailiff was created to regulate the Cape Cod Fisheries. Thomas Paine was appointed as the first water bailiff. The law required residents of the colony to pay a duty of six pence per barrel of mackerel caught. The duty on mackerel caught by foreigners was one shilling and 6 pence per barrel.
Water bailiff oath "You shall faithfully serve in the office of Water Bailiff in the Jurisdiction of New Plymouth and shall carefully observe such orders of Court as concerns your said office with special reference unto the improvement thereof at Cape Cod and places adjacent. You shall faithfully discharge the trust imposed upon you in demanding and receiving whatsoever shall be due unto the Colony by such fish as shall be there taken; and shall seasonably give in a true account thereof unto the Treasurer yearly."
In 1672, a new law was created which gave the water bailiff authority to seize any fish caught by a vessel in Cape Cod Bay that did not pay its duty.
"It is enacted by the Court that if any person or person that shall at any time hereafter ship or load on board any fish, caught at Cape Cod but such as he or they shall give an account of to the water bailiff: All such fish shall be forfeited to the colony's use. The water bailiff is hereby empowered to make seizure of all such fish as shall at any time become forfeit and is to give account thereof to the Treasurer or such as shall be appointed by the magistrates or any four of them to take the said account."
In 1673, a law passed which said that all profits from the Cape Cod fishery would be used to fund a public school. In 1684, the taking of mackerel ashore with seines or nets was prohibited under the forfeiture of the seines nets vessels and boats employed. The forfeitures were to be divided between the informer and the colony. Magistrates were authorized to issue warrants to persons empowering them as water bailiffs to make such seizures. The Massachusetts Bay Colony (situated around present day Boston and Salem) and the Colony of New Plymouth (situated around present day Barnstable County, Plymouth county and Bristol county) unified in 1692 to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay. In 1693, deer hunting was prohibited between January 1 and July 1. The first offense forty shillings, second offense three pounds, third offense five pounds. In 1710, a law was passed that banned the hunting of waterfowl from any boat, canoe, float, raft, or vessel. The penalty for breaking the law was a fine of forty shillings and a three-year prohibition from hunting any waterfowl. In 1727, the law was revised to include the prohibition of hunting waterfowl at night. The penalty from the crime was split between the person reporting the crime and the poor.
In 1717, to increase the deer population, a law was passed which prohibited any killing of bucks, does, and fawns until August 1, 1721.
"Whereas the depth of snow in some late winters hath been so great as hath occasioned the destruction of a great part of the deer in this province; to the intent that the said creature (which is both harmless and profitable) may be preserved and increased".
The first game warden Massachusetts was the first in the nation to appoint game wardens in 1739. The first game wardens were first known as "Informers of Deer" and later on as "Deer Reeves". In 1739, the fine for killing a buck, doe, or fawn was increased from forty shillings to ten pounds. Along with the increased fine, every town in the province was now required to appoint two people to enforce the revised law. The two people chosen by the towns were known as "Informers of Deer" and they were sworn town officers "whose care and duty it shall be to inform of all breaches of this act, and to take care that the violators thereof be duly prosecuted and punished". The informers were the first game wardens in the country. The penalty for towns which did not choose Informers was thirty pounds. In 1763, the act to increase the deer population in the colony was revised to include moose. The revised law prohibited any hunting of deer and moose from December 21 to August 11 of each year. The law also required each town in the colony to appoint two deer-reeves. The deer reeves duties, like the "Informer of Deers", was to enforce the deer protection act and prosecute any offenders. An excerpt from court records:
"At a court in Northampton, March, 1763 John Worthington Esq. Attorney for our sovereign lord the king, in this behalf, here instantly complains and gives this court to understand and be informed, that Azariah Selden of Hadley, in the county of Hampshire, yeoman, on the 8th day of March current, did at said Northampton, wittingly and willingly, with force and arms, kill one wild deer, and then and there had in his possession the raw flesh and raw skin of one wild deer, killed since the 21st day of December last, contrary to a law of this province, the peace of said lord the king, his crown and dignity. He was fined 10 pounds and costs 29 shillings, Noah Smith Jr of Hadley the informer, was to have half the fine".
Establishment of Fisheries Board of Commissioners In 1865, the Board of Commissioners on Fisheries was created and composed of three members. Deputy commissioners were appointed by the commissioners. The deputy commissioners were given the power to arrest without warrant persons found violating laws. Fishing on Sundays was also banned by an act which said "Whoever attempts to take or catch any fish on the Lord's Day ... shall be punished by a fine not exceeding ten dollars". In 1886, the commission's authority was extended to the protection and preservation of birds and animals and its name was changed to Board of Commissioners on Fisheries and Game. In 1899, any hunting of birds and game on Sundays was banned. In 1901, the Attorney General, Hosea M. Knowlton, rendered a decision that the deputies of the commission are no longer allowed to enforce the Sunday fishing ban. The decision made by the attorney general was made because the Sunday fishing ban was not a law relating to inland fisheries.
"Its authority for the enforcement of law being definitely limited to fish and game laws, and the recent rulings and decisions having been established the fact that the law relating to Sunday fishing is "An act for the better observance of the Lord's day" and not a fish law, it was manifestly our duty to instruct our deputies not to enforce a law which we have no right to enforce".
In 1901, the deputy force consisted of paid deputies, special deputies, and unpaid deputies. The paid deputies were employed by the state and served as deputies all year long. The special deputies worked varying terms of service and were employed by the state, hunting clubs, and towns. In 1902, the Office of Inspector General of Fish was abolished and its power and duties are given to the Board of Commissioners on Fisheries and Game. The deputy force of 1911 consisted of 29 paid deputies, 15 special deputies, and 186 unpaid deputies. In 1912, a new law was passed which authorized that every town and city can appoint a fish and game warden with a salary not exceeding fifty dollars. The town wardens were given the same powers as the commission's deputies and were paid by the town.
In 1919, the Board of Commissioners on Fisheries and Game was abolished and the Department of Conservation (DOC) was first established.
With the creation of the Department of Conservation all of the states fish and game laws were now enforced by the Division of Fisheries and Game. In 1929, the Bureau of Marine Fisheries was established within the Division of Fisheries and Game. The new legislation also required wardens and deputies to wear a metallic badge when on duty and with authorization to carry a weapon.
"The wardens and deputies, when on duty, shall wear and display a metallic badge bearing the seal of the commonwealth and the words "fish and game warden" or "deputy fish and game warden", as the case may be. The director, with the approval of the governor, may in writing authorize any warden to have in his possession and carry a revolver, club, billy, handcuffs and twisters, or such other weapon or article required in the performance of his official duty".