FORTY-SECOND BIENNIAL REPORT 17 



within 150 yards of dwellings and outbuilding's, and the wounding or 

 killing of another person while hunting. 



The concrete expressions of good will toward landowners and the 

 new code of hunter conduct puts California abreast of other progressive 

 states in legislation of this type. 



The law prohibiting the sale of deer hides, which was temporarily 

 lifted during the last war to permit the manufacture of warm gloves 

 for airmen and troops engaged in combat in the colder regions, was 

 permanently removed inasmuch as there is no longer sufficient profit in 

 the traffic of deer hides to induce hunters to devote the time and effort 

 necessary to collect marketable quantities. 



Laws governing the former misnamed game management areas, sub- 

 ject to much debate among operator and sportsman partisans, were more 

 closely defined in the 1951 legislative session, to the apparent satisfac- 

 tion of all parties. The areas will be known in the future as private 

 licensed game bird clubs. 



A great new fishing industry was born when the Legislature passed 

 a law making it possible for the first time to net prawns and shrimp in 

 quantity in ocean waters. Initial reports from the new fishery are 

 encouraging. 



It is still too early to evaluate fully bills affecting ocean angling 

 licenses and further restricting inland commercial fishing. Bitter oppo- 

 sition from commercial fishing people, accompanied by jubilation from 

 sports fishing segments, marked the new law which removed gill nets 

 from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. 



The first reaction from the public to the new law which allows free 

 ocean angling from all public piers might be compared to the effect of 

 finding an imaginary $3 bill on the sidewalk. Many informed sportsmen, 

 in reconsidering the free pier fishing law have come to believe that there 

 was a dangerous hook in this legislative generosity, because a reduced 

 income in the marine fisheries field means reduced services. 



In view of the present heavy pressure on California's ocean fisheries, 

 an extension of free fishing privileges is an invitation to disaster. 



In other actions, the Legislature continued for two years the regu- 

 latory powers of the Fish and Game Commission; made it illegal to 

 possess striped bass in bait shops, markets and restaurants; adopted a 

 strong law against artificial barriers or log jams in north coastal streams ; 

 and vastly improved the law with reference to the installation and main- 

 tenance of fish screens in the smaller water diversions. 



Outstanding among the progressive actions of the 1951 session was 

 the adoption of the Senator Charles Brown Reorganization Act, which 

 removed the Division of Fish and Game from the Department of Natural 

 Resources and made it an independent department. 



CONSERVATION EDUCATION AND PUBLIC INFORMATION 



All activities of the public information section were stepped up during 

 the biennium to meet the demands of license buyers, the press, sports- 

 men's groups and the public for information concerning the activities 

 and policies of the Department of Fish and Game, Fish and Game Com- 

 mission, AVildlife Conservation Board and related groups. 



