A 2-year-old dispute over Mattapoisett shellfish enforcement will be allowed to proceed through the court system as a question of Wampanoag tribal rights.

On January 11, the Plymouth Superior Court ruled that a lawsuit involving David Greene of Buzzards Bay versus the town of Mattapoisett was allowed to move forward.

Greene, a Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe member, was shellfishing in Mattapoisett in October 2010 when Kenneth Pacheco, then Deputy Shellfish Warden, told him he was violating town regulations.

Pacheco and Greene got into an argument and the police were called. According to the court report, “After the incident, Kathleen Massey, head of the town’s Natural Resources Department, apologized to Greene for the incident but states that notwithstanding his status as a member of the Tribe, he had to follow the town’s fishing and shellfishing regulations.”

Greene filed a preliminary injunction stating that the town was “interfering with his aboriginal, treaty-based, and statutory rights to shellfish and fish without a permit and without regulation or restriction by the town.”

The judge in the preliminary injunction ruled that the “full scope” of the Tribe’s shellfishing rights does not have a clear precedent in the Supreme Judicial Court.

Town Administrator Mike Gagne said the town does not dispute the Tribe’s right to fish. But, he said, “The issue here is whether or not they are subject to the same quotas on the amount of the catch that the residents and non-residents and commercial fishermen are subject to.”

The town’s responsibility is to protect its resources, said Gagne. “We have to vigorously defend the issue. The quota system is the only way we’re going to be able to keep the resource rejuvenating. It’s a matter that could very well set a precedent for all the waters of the Commonwealth,” he said.

The issue is still in the preliminary stages, and Gagne said more facts will be collected before going into another round of hearings.