Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Section 44 of chapter 130 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 1996 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the word "length", in line 32, the following words:- ; provided, however, that the director shall, by regulation approved by the marine fisheries advisory commission, permit the possession and on-shore processing of shell-on frozen lobster tails by wholesale dealers; provided, further, that possession of lobster tails at sea, or at any location where processing is not being conducted, shall be prohibited and shall be subject to the penalties provided in the first paragraph; and provided, further, that said processing shall be conducted only by wholesale dealers who have been issued a special permit by the director and whose facilities are certified as U.S.D.C. Type I or the equivalent thereof.

SECTION 2. The regulation required by the provisions of section 1 shall be promulgated within 120 days of the effective date of this act.