IN THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF
ALABAMA.
Regular Session, 1923.
LEGISLATIVE DOCUMENT NO. 15
REPORT OF
JOINT RECESS LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON
GAME, FISH AND SEA FOODS
AUGUST 9, 1923
500 copies ordered printed by House
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REPORT OF JOINT RECESS COMMITTEE
Pursuant to House Joint Resolution Number 41, ap-
proved February 10th, 1923, two members of the Senate,
appointed by the President of the Senate, and three mem-
bers of the House, appointed by the Speaker of the
House, whose signatures are subscribed to this Report,
submit this Report with recommendations, containing a
synopsis of the main features contained in bills prepared
for the consideration of the Legislature.
HEARINGS HELD
The Committee assembled in Mobile on June 7th, 1923,
and from there visited the following places, where public
hearings and conferences were held: Biloxi, Miss., Bayou
LaBatre, Mobile, Birmingham, Camp Oliver, and Mont-
gomery. Hearings and conferences were held with a
total attendance of approximately six hundred people.
We were accompanied on all these trips by I. T. Quinn,
Commissioner of Conservation, who acted as Secretary
to the Committee.
SEAFOODS
BILOXI, MISS.
The Committee visited Biloxi, Miss., for the purpose of
obtaining full information as to methods employed and
the factors involved in the rapid development of the oys-
ter industry along the Mississippi Coast. We were met
by the Mayor of Biloxi, in company with the Mississippi
Oyster Commission, and a large delegation of citizens,
who carried the Committee on a trip of inspection to sev-
eral of the large seafood canning factories.
On the morning of June the 8th, we were carried over
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some of the oyster bottoms where we observed the plant-
ing of seed oysters on depleted and barren bottoms. This
planting is done by the State of Mississippi with an an-
nual expenditure of approximately $8,000.00.
The Committee was given a demonstration in dredg-
ing which method the State of Mississippi employs
wholly in harvesting oysters for steaming or canning
purposes, hand tongs being used solely for the purpose
of taking oysters for counter and other raw trade.
In the afternoon of the same day, a public hearing was
held in Biloxi to which approximately one hundred men,
engaged in the oyster industry, attended and gave to the
Committee practical and helpful information regarding
the preservation, development and improvement of the
oyster industry.
BAYOU LaBATRE, ALA.
On the 9th day of June, a similar meeting was held at
Bayou LaBatre, in Mobile county, at which meeting
about seventy-five persons were present. Practically all
present were oyster fishermen. There were also present
some persons representing the canners and factory oper-
ators.
Of all present there were a few who were in favor of
dredging oysters in Alabama waters. Several oyster
fishermen testified before the Committee that they op-
posed any change in the method of removing oysters
from any of the waters of the State of Alabama.
The sense of the meeting was against the use of power
tongs or dredges.
Our investigation revealed the fact that the bottoms
in the Alabama waters in the vicinity of Mobile and Bald-
win counties are superior to those in Mississippi. Mis-
sissippi has developed its oyster bottoms by a method of
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planting which practice has not been adopted in Ala-
bama.
The sense of the meeting which was held in Biloxi was
that the oyster bottoms in Mobile county could produce
the finest oysters in the country if properly developed
and cultivated.
MOBILE, ALABAMA
On June 11th a public hearing was conducted in Mobile,
Alabama, which was attended by approximately twenty-
five people. It developed at this meeting that the dredg-
ing of oysters would prove disastrous to the oyster reefs
in the Alabama waters. However, there were present at
this meeting some packers, who were in favor of dredg-
ing.
GAME AND FISH
MOBILE, ALA.
On the afternoon of June 11th, a public hearing was
held in Mobile to hear recommendations for a type of leg-
islation that will best conserve, protect and develop the
wild life of field, forest and streams.
The meeting was well represented by sportsmen and
conservationists, and the Committee was impressed with
candor and earnestness of that high type of citizen who
is making a plea for adequate conservation laws and the
machinery for their proper enforcement.
BIRMINGHAM—CAMP OLIVER
A public hearing was held on June 12th out from
Birmingham at Camp Oliver on Lake Bankhead, where a
large delegation from Birmingham and surrounding ter-
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ritory met with the Committee. This delegation repre-
senting the Alabama Fishermen's and Hunters' Associa-
tion and subsidiary organizations in the State, number-
ing several thousand members, made uniformly the same
recommendations that were made at a conference of
sportsmen and conservationists, representing thirty
counties, held at Montgomery in September, 1922, and
similar to the recommendations received by the Commit-
tee at Mobile, among which may be mentioned the fol-
lowing:
(1) A closed season on bass, bream and trout for a
period of at least two months during the bedding or
spawning season.
(2) The use of all hunters' license money in the en-
forcement of the game and fish laws of the State.
(3) An all-time game and fish warden in each county
of the State to enforce the game and fish laws.
(4) Better laws for the protection and preservation
of all protected fur-bearing animals.
(5) The propagation of fish by the State for free dis-
tribution to citizens of the State, and a nominal fee for
fishing license to be used solely and exclusively for the
propagation and distribution of fish in the public streams,
lakes and ponds of the State.
(6) Placing the salary of the Commissioner of Conser-
vation on an equitable basis along with the elective heads
of other State Departments.
MONTGOMERY, ALA.
The Committee went to Montgomery on June 13th,
and spent the remainder of the ten days, allotted to it by
the resolution creating the Committee on Game, Fish and
Sea-foods, in hearing delegations from Selma, Evergreen,
Brewton, Tuscaloosa and other sections of the State. All
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delegations concurred in the recommendations already in
the hands of the Committee.
One thing that has impressed the Committee at all
public hearings is the unanimity of thought and the con-
certed effort on the part of all the people who appeared
before it in person or otherwise communicated with it, on
problems relating to the preservation, protection and de-
velopment of the State's wild life resources, and the in-
sistent demand that the funds accruing to the credit of
the Game and Fish Protection Fund be used solely and
exclusively for the purpose of employing a warden sys-
tern that will enforce the conservation statutes and pro-
tect, with maximum results, the wild life resources of
the State.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Your Committee has made as thorough and complete
investigations as has been possible for it during the ten
days time allotted, and has weighed carefully recommen-
dations from delegations representing conservation
clubs, game and game-fish protective associations, with a
total membership of nearly eleven thousand citizens of
the State, or practically 85% of those who annually pur-
chase hunting licenses.
We have given serious thought to the development of
our seafoods industry, and while it is impossible for the
Committee to recommend legislation that will be satis-
factory to all those engaged in the industry, we believe
that if the recommendations which follow are enacted
into law and strictly enforced, it will mean the greatest
constructive and at the same time the most rapid devel-
opment of a long neglected industry.
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SEA-FOODS
(1) All leases of oyster bottoms should be abolished.
(2) The State should engage in the planting of seed
oysters and oyster shells in depleted areas and barren
bottoms.
(3) The tax on oysters should be increased from two
to five cents per barrel, and a return of 15% of shells
from oysters obtained from the public reefs for planting
purposes.
(4) Alabama is the only state in the Union that by
law prohibits dredging with power tongs and dredges
oysters in any of its waters. The State should, therefore,
permit the operation of power tongs and dredges at least
in those areas where the open deep waters are located in
which hand tongs cannot be operated profitably to the
individual nor to the State.
Ed. J. Grove, Chairman, dissents from Recommenda-
tion 4.
(5) Riparian rights should be curtailed.
(6) Appropriation to replenish the oyster bottoms in
Alabama.
GAME AND FISH
(1) The expenditure of all funds arising from the sale
of hunting licenses and fines, penalties and forfeitures
should be used in the preservation, propagation, and de-
velopment of the State's wild life resources.
(2) An all-time warden in each county in the State to
properly enforce the game and fish laws of the State.
(3) A closed season on bass, bream and trout during
the months of April and May to give them an opportunity
to propagate.
(4) The construction and operation of one or more
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fish cultural stations in the State for the purpose of rear-
ing edible game fish for free distribution to citizens of the
State for re-stocking purposes.
(5) The imposition of a nominal fishing license fee
imposed on all persons above the age of sixteen years,
fishing outside of the precinct in which they reside, said
fee to be used solely and exclusively for rearing fish by
the State for free distribution. Ed. J. Grove, Chairman,
dissents from this recommendation.
(6) Greatly restricting the trapping of fur-bearing
animals in the State.
(7) Prohibiting the hunting and chasing with dog and
gun, or dog or gun, protected fur-bearing animals from
March 1st to September 1st, following.
(8) The abolition of the fish-trap and prohibiting the
use of all seines and nets having a stretched mesh under
five inches, except in salt water streams or bodies.
THE DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION
(1) The Department of Conservation should be reor-
ganized and a complete record of all transactions of the
Department kept. The office force is wholly inadequate
to take care of the work required. The only help the
head of the Department has is a stenographer. He
should be given a bookkeeper to take care of all records
of the Department, including the receipts and disburse-
ments.
(2) At present when convictions are reported to the
Department, the Commissioner never knows whether the
fine has been remitted to the State, as the law does not
require it to pass through his office before being covered
into the treasury. In many instances the present Com-
missioner has discovered a large number of fines which
in past years have not been remitted to the State at all.
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(3) The Commissioner of Conservation receives a sal-
ary which is $1,000 per annum less than the minimum
received by the elective heads of any of the other Depart-
ments of the State.
Remembering that none of the expenses of the Depart-
ment come out of the general revenues of the State, the
Commissioner's salary should be placed on an equitable
basis with the elective heads of other Departments.
(6) Monies that are collected from the sources herein
named should be used solely for conservation purposes.
Respectfully submitted,
EDWARD J. GROVE,
Chairman, Recess Committee,
On Fish and Game Conservation.
ROBT. H. JONES,
Vice-Chairman.
JOHN CRAFT,
Member of Senate.
J. H. L. HENLEY,
Member of House.
CHAMP PICKENS,
Member of House.