No, there is no statute or regulation that allows someone to keep "abandoned" traps. If the traps have been in the water too long the best thing you can do is call our dispatch center and report the location. Include the color and number on the buoy. Our officers can then check the traps and see if they can determine who owns them. If there is no way to identify the owner then the department can seize them.

Here are some of the applicable regulations and statute sections:

26-157c-2. Taking lobsters – pots and traps
(f) All lobster pots used in the waters of this state shall be identified as required in subsection (b) of section 26-157a of the General Statutes and, upon transfer of ownership of said pots, any previous identification shall not be removed or obliterated. Any lobster pot, trap or similar device found to contain a defaced or obliterated license number may be seized by any authorized representative of the Department of Environmental Protection and either used by the Department for purposes of marine research or destroyed.

Sec. 26-167. Stealing fish, lobsters or equipment. Penalty. No person except the licensed owner, an authorized licensed agent of the owner, the commissioner or authorized agents of the department or law enforcement officers empowered to serve criminal process shall remove or attempt to remove any fish or lobster from any pound, weir, net, pot or other device used for the purpose of taking or retaining fish or lobsters. No person shall have in his possession or set or cause to be set any trap, pot or other device for taking fish or lobsters which belong to another without having written authorization from the owner or his authorized agent. Any trap, pot or other device so set and not identified by the owner's number, which shall be assigned by the commissioner, shall, for the purpose of this section, be considered prima facie evidence of having been stolen or illegally possessed by the person setting the same. Any unauthorized person who lifts, raises, draws or molests, or assists in so doing, any trap, pot or other device set for the purpose of taking fish or lobsters, or steals any fish or lobster therefrom except as provided herein, shall be fined not more than two hundred dollars or be imprisoned not more than six months or both. Any trap, pot or other device and accessories thereto used in violation of this section shall be forfeited to the state and shall be sold or otherwise disposed of by the commissioner or his authorized agent.