A commercial fisherman and member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, who had some wild oysters he picked from a pond seized by the state, lost his appeal.

Cheenulka Pocknett went to Green Pond in Falmouth on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019, and took “a large number of wild oysters,” according to the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Unfortunately for him, the pond was closed to commercial fishing on Wednesdays, as it also is for Sundays, Mondays and Fridays.

Pocknett kept a number of the oysters for himself as well as friends and family, as is allowed due to tribal exemption laws. But he boxed another 1,600 of the oysters, marked the containers with his Division of Marine Fisheries license number, and sold them to a Harwich-based shellfish wholesaler called Big Rock Oysters.

The Falmouth harbormaster s

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