Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 97 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



FOREWORD. 



As viewed and recommended by the Board of Shell Fish Com- 

 missioners, the chief aim of future oyster legislation in Maryland 

 should be to conserve and develop all of our oyster resources in 

 ways calculated to restore the State eventually to the pre-eminent 

 position in oyster production it formerly held among the Atlantic 

 Coast States ; and to so manage and administer these resources that 

 a great revenue shall be returned by them to the State treasury for 

 the benefit of the entire State. 



Th necessity for adequate legislation looking toward these two 

 results has been increasingly felt for more than thirty years. Dur- 

 ing this period, however, the aim of practically all oyster legislation 

 has been directed toward preventing the depletion and destruction of 

 the natural oyster beds through over-fishing, by placing limits and 

 restrictions of one kind or another upon the methods and instru- 

 ments which may be employed in gathering the natural product from 

 the public fishery grounds. These measures have done nothing more 

 than make the destructive processes less rapid, and in spite of all 

 the work that has been carried on under them, the output from the 

 public oyster fishery of the State has gradually declined both in 

 quantity and quality, and, as a result, our oyster packers have been 

 unable to compete successfully for the oyster trade with the packers 

 and growers of other more progressive States, and, greatly to the 

 discredit of our administrative capacity, our oyster resources have 

 become an expense to the State instead of a source of great revenue. 



Practically nothing has been done to extend the area or increase 

 the yield of the natural oyster bars, and, for many years, almost no 

 provision was made whereby that enormous area of hard bottom, 

 situated outside the limits of the natural oyster beds, could be sub- 

 jected to practical tests to determine and develop its value for oyster 

 production. 



After years of discussion the State finally decided in 1906 to try 

 what can be done for the oyster industry by an industry in real 

 oyster culture to be established and conducted by private citizens 

 upon the grounds not now occupied by the public oyster fishery. 



