52 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 



Those who are familiar with the conditions on the natural oyster 

 bars and are concerned for their conservation and for the develop- 

 ment of the oyster trade of the State, are almost unanimous in the 

 opinion that the Cull Law is the most important and efficient instru- 

 ment which has yet been conceived and enacted for the protection 

 and conservation of the public oyster fishery. They realize the 

 great difficulties met with by the State Fishery Force in enforcing 

 the Cull Law, even when none of the oyster grounds are exempt 

 from its provisions, and they must therefore look with disfavor 

 upon any change in jurisdiction which would render the enforce- 

 ment of the law even more difficult. 



There are sections of the bay and tributaries, other than the 

 Lumps, in which the strict enforcement of the Cull Law at times 

 works a hardship upon the local oystermen and an injury to the 

 natural bars over-crowded for the time with cysters, and these sec- 

 tions might also profit at such times by a repeal of the Cull Law 

 as applied to them, but without an enormous increase in the police 

 force and the corps of inspectors, such a course would amount to a 

 repeal of the Cull Law for the entire State. 



A PROPOSED SOLUTION. 



It is neither necessary to repeal the Cull Law or so to modify it 

 as to make it ineffective, nor to lose the product from the Lumps 

 and other sections where small oysters over-crowd the natural bars. 



Should the general oyster fishing season be made to extend from 

 October ist, to April 1st., then short seasons of one month each 

 could be provided, one immediately before the beginning of the gen- 

 eral season, the other at its close, during which unculled oysters 

 might be taken from the Lumps and such other sections of the bay 

 and tributaries which, in the judgment of the Commander of the 

 State Fishery Force and the Board of Public Works, would be im- 

 proved thereby. 



By an adjustment such as this the Cull Law would be made to 

 apply to all sections alike during the general oyster fishing season 

 and no one would be the loser or would suffer hardship from its 

 rigid enforcement. During the short seasons before and after the 

 general season, it would be quite possible to so station the fleet of 

 police boats that fishing for unculled oysters would be restricted to 



