Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 125 



II. 



OPINIONS RENDERED BY HON. THOMAS H. ROBIN- 

 SON, COUNSEL TO THE BOARD OF SHELL 

 FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



1. Jurisdiction. 



Chapter 71 1 of the Acts of 1906 has no application to the natural 

 oyster beds and bars located in the waters of the State of Maryland, 

 except to provide for their survey and delineation upon maps and 

 charts of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey of the 

 largest scale and providing a copy for each of the counties of this 

 State in the waters of which natural beds, bars and rocks are 

 located as set forth with great detail in said Act and subject to the 

 right of appeal as therein provided, the action of the Shell Fish 

 Commission shall be conclusive evidence of the boundaries of all 

 natural oyster beds, bars and rocks. All the areas of the Chesa- 

 peake Bay and its tributaries and the waters of the State within 

 the State of Maryland not shown in said survey to be natural 

 oyster beds, bars or rocks shall be construed in all the courts of the 

 State to be barren bottoms, and it is with this part of the land 

 owned by the State and covered with water that the Act above re- 

 ferred to applies as well as to land lawfully appropriated or taken 

 up for the purpose of planting, bedding or cultivating oysters 

 thereon as provided in Section 108 of the Act. 



2. Private Ownership and Riparian Rights. 



One of the questions of considerable interest to land owners bor- 

 dering on the waters of the State is as to the extent of their rights 

 on the shore. Section 107 of this Act provides that it is not in- 

 tended to apply to any lands owned by private persons the bounds 

 of which extend below low water into and beneath the waters of 

 the State, it being the intention of the Act to protect the rights of 

 land owners under old grants from the State prior to 1862 who 

 may have acquired the right from the State to any land covered 

 by navigable water. It is believed that the extent of this private 

 ownership is very small, but whenever it does exist and the title 

 can be established, the rights of the owner are exempt from the 

 operation of this Bill to the extent of their holdings. Chapter 129 



