Ever Wondered if Your Favorite Maine Seafood Can Be Your Pet?

Maine Seafood

Sure, the beaches are amazing, the lighthouses are picturesque, and driving the coastline along Route 1 is incredibly scenic, but without a doubt the biggest reason that tourists and other people from away come to Maine in the warmer months?

Seafood. Hands down.

Whether it's lobster, clams, mussels, scallops, oysters, shrimp, or some other sea creature living its best life (until its caught) off the coast of Maine in the Atlantic, there's not one thought put into the legality of catching, killing, and eating said seafood. It's basically our way of life (well, unless you're allergic, anyway.)

But on the Maine Reddit page, a random (but solid) question was brought up.

Maine Legal Pets

Sure, we can eat seafood legally, but is it cool to own some sea creatures? More specifically, pet snails?

READ MORE: 4 Animals You Can Legally Hunt Year-Round in Maine

It seems like it'd be a no-brainer question, right? We legally employ jobs to catch seafood, we legally employ jobs to create meals out of them, so why wouldn't we be able to snag a couple lobsters from the ocean, toss them in a salt water tank, name them "Ross" and "Rachel" (bonus points if you get the Friends reference), and call it a day?

Unfortunately (and a bit surprisingly), it's not actually that cut and dry.

According to Section 7.06(4) of Maine's Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Rule Chapter 7 on Captive Wildlife:

A person may not possess any species that has not been categorized. Any species which has not been identified as a Prohibited, Restricted, or Unrestricted species will not be eligible for a permit under this chapter, however a request may be made to review the categorization of a species subject to section 7.06(5).

Section 7.18 actually lists some prohibited and restricted species, and while neither pet snails or seafood in general made the list, where they have not been categorized, based on the section above, it's a no-go on keeping them for pets, at least legally.