L264. FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
CEIAPPTER: Gi: 
An Act Establishing a State Commission for the Designation of 
Oyster Grounds. 
Be tt enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives tn General 
Assembly convened: 
SECTION 1. The State shall exercise exclusive jurisdiction and con- 
trol over all shell-fisheries which are located in that area of the State 
which is within that part of Long Island Sound and its tributaries 
bounded westerly and southerly by the State of New York, easterly 
by the State of Rhode Island, and northerly by a line following the 
coasts of the State at high water, which shall cross all its bays, rivers, 
creeks, and inlets at such places nearest Long Island Sound as are 
within and between points on opposite shores from one of which ob- 
jects and what is done on the opposite shore can be reasonably dis- 
cerned with the naked eye, or could be discerned but for intervening 
islands. And all shell-fisheries not within said area shall be and re- 
main within the jurisdiction and control of the towns in which they 
are located, under the same laws and regulations and through the same 
selectmen and oyster committees as heretofore. It a difference shall 
arise between any town and the commissioners as hereinafter provided 
for, as to the boundary line between said town and the area so to be 
mapped, said town, by its selectmen, may bring its petition to the Su- 
perior Court for the county within which said town is situated, to de- 
termine said boundary line, and said court upon reasonable notice to 
the parties shall hear said petition and appoint a committee to ascer- 
tain the facts in such case and report the same to said court, and said 
court shall thereupon make such order as may be proper in the 
_ premises. 
SEc. 2. The three fish commissioners of the State now in office, and 
their successors, shall also be and constitute a board of commissioners 
of shell-fisheries, and be empowered to make or cause to be made a 
survey and map of all the grounds within the said area in Long Island 
Sound which have been or may be designated for the planting or cul- 
tivation of shell-fish; shall ascertain the ownership thereof, and how 
much of the same is actually in use for said purposes; they shall also 
cause a survey Of all the natural oyster beds in said area, and shall lo- 
cate and delineate the same on said map, which survey and map when 
completed shall not cost a sum exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars, 
and shall report to the next session of the legislature a plan for an 
equitable taxation of the property in said fisheries, and make an an- 
