WESTPORT — Crabbing at Sherwood Mill Pond is legal. Parking in the area may not be.

That’s the message of a statement by Conservation Director Colin Kelly, issued Tuesday in response to neighborhood complaints and inquiries about the upsurge in crabbing at the pond over the last several months.

Crabbing is legal under state law, with people granted access to state waters to fish for blue crabs, which also does not require a license. The crabbing season runs from May 1 to Nov. 30, when there is no daily limit on a harvest, although there are restrictions on size and trapping gear. (Click for the detailed state regulations; for more information contact the state Marine Fisheries Division at 860-434-6043 or deep.marine.fisheries@ct.gov.)

Kelly’s statement emphasized that the town’s Conservation Department, the Sherwood Mill Pond Committee and the Shellfish Commission do not have authority to regulate or restrict crabbing in the pond. (For information about Westport’s shellfishing policies, click here.)

But, he added, complaints about the situation have not been ignored by Westport authorities, with more than 50 patrols conducted by local police through the Sherwood Mill Pond area during summer, according to the statement.

Westport officers, sometimes working with state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection police, also have “interacted with the individuals who are crabbing; they have actively provided education, and they have checked the catches to ensure proper measurements are being followed,” Kelly’s statement said.

Police, as part of stepped-up enforcement in the area, have issued more than 70 parking tickets along Hillspoint Road and at the Old Mill Beach parking lot in the last few weeks, according to the statement. During a single night, more than 30 of those tickets were issued.

The police response to complaints about crabbing and related issues are expected to be discussed at this week’s meeting of the Sherwood Mill Pond Committee, which is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. Thursday in Town Hall Room 309.