REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 45 



a fund for the payment of expenses for propagating, protecting, and 

 introducing game birds into the State. 



Provision should be made that it shall be no defense for any person 

 to claim that game in his possession was caught or killed outside of this 

 State. 



The following recommendations regarding additions and changes 

 deemed necessary in the fish laws are here submitted: 



A section should be added to the Penal Code, forbidding the taking of 

 black bass except with hook and line. 



The law making it a misdemeanor to sell or possess a lobster of less 

 than one pound in weight should be changed to read " * * * of less 

 than nine and one half inches in length, measured from one extremity 

 to the other, exclusive of legs or feelers." 



Section 635, relating to the taking of fish from any pond or reservoir 

 which has been stocked with fish, should be amended so as to enable the 

 Commission to more fully protect the rearing-ponds near our hatcheries. 

 This can be accomplished by adding the words " or controlled by the 

 State Board of Fish Commissioners." 



A section should be added to the Penal Code forbidding the taking of 

 female crabs at any time. 



The laws relating to the taking of trout need revision, and the follow- 

 ing wording is suggested: 



Sec. — . Every person who takes, catches, kills, offers or exposes for sale, or has in 

 iiis possession any rainbow trout {Salmo irideus), cnt-throat trout (Salmo mykiss), eastern 

 brook trout (Salveliniis fontinalis), brown trout {Salmo fario), Loch Leven trout {Salmo 

 trutta levenensis), Mackinaw trout {Salvelinus naynaycush), Dolly Varden trout {Salvelinus 

 i))alma), or any kind of trout except steelhead trout {Salmo gairdneri), taken in tide- 

 water, between the first day of December and the first day of May of the following year, 

 is guilty of a misdemeanor. 



Sec. — . Every person who buys, sells, offers or exposes for sale, any steelhead trout 

 {Salmo gairdneri), between the first day of December and the first day of February of 

 the following year, is guilty of a misdemeanor. 



Sec. — . Every person who buys or sells, or offers or exposes for sale, or has in his pos- 

 session, any kind of trout less than six inches in length, is guilty of a misdemeanor. 



Sec — . Every person who, at any time, takes or catches any trout except with hook 

 and line, is guilty of a misdemeanor ; provided, however, that steelhead trout {Salmo 

 gairdneri) may be taken in tidewater between the first day of February and the first 

 day of May, with lawful nets. A lawful net shall be considered a net that, when placed 

 in the water, is unsecured and free to float with the current or tide, and the meshes of 

 which are, when drawn closely together and measured inside the knot, not less than 

 seven and one half inches in length. 



It should be made a felony to use any explosive for the taking or 

 killing of fish. Under the present law it is made a misdemeanor, and 

 the punishment does not fit the crime. 



The netting of fish in any stream upon which is located a State hatch- 

 ery should be forbidden. A law to this effect already gives protection 

 to United States hatcheries. 



We recommend adding to the laws relating to the protection of sal- 



