46 OYSTER BOTTOMS IN MATAGORDA BAY. 



to cull and return to the beds alive oysters 2^ inches long or less and 

 all dead shells; for planting oysters during the closed season stated 

 above; for the theft of oysters from private beds; for removing or 

 injuring marks designating private beds; and for using rakes or 

 dredges on the public beds or natural reefs. 



DISCUSSION OF EXISTING LAWS. 



The laws as published under the authority of the fish and oyster 

 commissioner of Texas in 1005, of which laws the foregoing is a brief 

 digest,, are in the main salutary, though there are some inconsistencies 

 and duplications and several important omissions. The former are 

 probably more apparent than real and may represent defects of com- 

 pilation rather than of the laws themselves. 



The law provides no definite method of securing a review of the 

 acts of the commissioner, a matter which the experience of other 

 states has shown to be of considerable importance. 



When the necessity arises for the examination of considerable 

 areas of the bottom in the location of the proposed leases, it may 

 easily occur that natural beds may inadvertently be included in the 

 survey. Unless such matters can be brought to an immediate issue 

 and adjudicated authoritatively ill feeling is engendered and a 

 natural prejudice excited against the whole scheme of oyster culture 

 under private ownership. The natural-bed oysterman will feel that 

 he has been defrauded and that public fisheries are gratuitously 

 transferred to private interests, and the belief may be held not the 

 less tenaciously though it be unfounded. Public sentiment favorably 

 inclined toward the more or less novel experiment of oyster culture 

 in any given locality is an important element of success in developing 

 the oyster resources of a state, and all measures tending to remove 

 sources of misunderstanding and irritation should be given effect. 



Another source of possible conflict lies in the failure of the laws to 

 require the proper marking of the oyster claims. It is true that per- 

 manent marks are required to be maintained on shore, but there is no 

 provision compelling the maintenance, under penalty, of such stakes 

 and buoys as will plainly delimit the boundaries of the beds, and 

 there is danger of constantly recurring disputes. On a number of 

 planted areas examined during the survey there was nothing to indi- 

 cate that they were other than scattering beds of wild oysters, and 

 they were recognized as private claims solely from the statements of 

 persons familiar with the locality. If a penalty is to be imposed for 

 removing oysters from leased bottoms, it is surely but just and proper 

 that the public should have some means of clearly knowing where 1 

 such leaseholds are located. 



The laws do not provide a definite term for the leases, and pre- 



