OYSTER RESOURCES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 365 
LAWS OF CALIFORNIA RELATIVE TO OYSTERS. 
CHAPTER XVII.—An act to encowrage the planting and cultivation of oysters. 
[Approved March 30, 1874; Stat. Cal. 1874, p. 940.] 
Sec. 1. Any citizen of the United States may lay down and plant oysters in any 
of the bays, rivers, or public waters of this State, and the ownership of and the 
exclusive right to take up and carry off the same shall be continued and remain in 
such person or persons who shall have‘laid down and planted the same. 
Src. 2. Any person or persons who now aave or may hereafter lay down and plant 
oysters, as hereinbefore provided, shall stake or fence off the land upon which the 
same is or hereafter may be laid down and planted, and such stakes or fences shall 
be sufficient marks of the boundaries and limits, and entitle such person or persons 
to the exclusive use and occupation thereof for the purposes prescribed in this act: 
Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be deemed to authorize any impedi- 
ment or obstructions to the navigation of any channels. 
Sec. 3. Parties planting or laying down such oyster beds shall record a full de- 
scription of said bed or beds in the county recorder’s office in the county where the 
same is situated. The recorder shall record the description so furnished in a book 
to be kept by him for that purpose, to be entitled a ‘‘ Record of oyster beds.” 
Sec. 4. Any person or persons who shall enter upon any lot of land in which there 
shall be oysters laid down and planted, and which at the time of such entry shall 
be fenced or staked off pursvant to the provisions of this act, and who shall take up 
and carry off therefrom such oysters, without the consent or permission of the occu- 
pants and owners thereof, and shall willfully destroy or remove, or cause to be 
removed or destroyed, any stakes, marks, or fences intended to designate the bound- 
aries and limits of any land claimed and staked or fenced off pursuant to the pro- 
visions of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. 
Sec. 5. The penalties of the penal code relative to misdemeanors are hereby made 
applicable to any violation of the provisions of this act. 
Sec. 6. All fines and penalties collected for a violation of any of the provisions of 
this act over and above the costs of suit shall be paid into the common school fund 
of the county where the offense was committed. 
Sec. 7. All parties availing themselves of the provisions of this act shall erect or 
cause to be erected, on some conspicuous part of the grounds devoted to the planting 
of oysters, a sign not less than 6 feet in length and 1 foot in width, on which shall 
be painted in black letters upon a white ground the words, ‘‘ oyster beds.” 
Suc. 8. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this act, and 
especially an act entitled ‘‘An act concerning oysters,” passed April 28, 1851 (Cal. 
Stat., 1851, p. 432), as also the act entitled “An act concerning oyster beds,” approved 
April 2, 1866 (Cal. Stat., 1866, p. 848), are hereby repealed, 
Sec. 9. This act shall not apply to any tide lands which the State may have sold 
to private parties: Provided further, That nothing herein shall be construed as to 
interfere with the right of the State to sell or dispose of any of the tide lands, nor to 
affectin any manner the rights of purchasers at any sale of the tide lands by the State. 
Sec. 10. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. 
Nore.—The acts mentioned in section 8 were continued in force by Political Code. 
CuHaPpteR XVIII.—Penal code. 
602. Every person who willfully commits any trespass by either: 
7. Entering upon any land owned by any other person or persons, whereon oys- 
ters or other shellfish are planted or growing, orinjuring, gathering, or carrying away 
any oysters or other shellfish planted, growing, or being on any such Jands, whether 
covered by water or not, without the license of the owner or legal occupant thereof, 
or destroying or removing, or causing to be removed or destroyed, any stakes, marks, 
fences, or signs intended to designate the boundaries and limits of any such land, 
is guilty of a misdemeanor, 
