Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-10-07
SOME OYSTER DoINGs.
Norfolk Papers and Packers Aroused
Over Slack P0lice Vigilance

Norfolk Papers and Packers Aroused
Over Slack Police Vigilance.
Seventeen of the leading oyster
packers of Norfolk, Portsmouth and
Berkeley have appealed formally to
the State Board of Fisheries for relief
from violations of the oyster Gull
law whereabouts, which, if continued,
the packers say, will soon mean the
determination of the oyster as State
revenue producer.
(FrOm Norfolk Landmark
The local oyster inspectors contin-
ued yesterday making an inspection
OF the oysters which have been
bought by packers and are being
used as marketable" oysters in VIC.
lation of the law.
1t Is understood that three of the
packers were fined and that other
fines will follow, and all will be ap-
pealed, as the packers say they can.
not buy oysters of regulation size
without taking the small oysters with
them.
The fight which will be waged by
the local packers of Norfolk, Ports.
mouth and Berkeley will be hot one
as they are determined to secure such
reforms as will prevent future VIC.
cations Of the Gull laws. seThe in.
spectors should not begin their in.
spection on u.s." said prominent
packer. "They should 90 out on
the oyster rocks where the bivalves
are being caught. That is the place
for them, but they find it much
easier to come to our houses than
they do to get out on the rocks to
find the violators.
I'VE are just forced into buying
nndersized oysters, because il we
don't take theni along with legal oys-
ters we can't get any at ali. The
small oysters are loss 70 us and we
don't want them"
After severely criticizing the In
spectors for taking advantage of their
predicament, the packer reiterated
the statement that unless immediate
action was taken by the State Board
OF Fisheries the industry, as far as
Norfolk is concerned, would soon be
a thing of the past.
The "cull law" places a heavy
fine on catchers, buyers, sellers, and,
IN fact, upon any one having an oyster
In their possession under three inches
in length. In order to prevent the
law being too closely drawn, bushel
OF oysters may contain not more than
8 per cent. of understood oysters
without constituting violation.
The packers are waiting patiently
for the reply of the State Fishery
Board, which will determine the fate
of the oyster industry in Virginia.
(Fr0m Norfolk Tirginian-P ilot.)
The truth of the whole matter is
that there has been so much of
politics, so much of prejudice, so
much OF ignorance and 80 much of
cowardice manifested every time the
General Assembly has taken up re-
medal oyster legislation that proper
legislation was out of the question.
Your Tidewater statesman gave more
thought to the oyster vote than to the
oyster industry, and your statesman
from the foothills was bent upon
getting as much as possible out of
the industry and putting as little as
possible into it. Between the two,
they have pretty we'll destroyed it.
And in this work of destruction
they have been ably aided by inef-
hciency or carelessness among oyster
inspectors, by the inadequacy of the
oyster navy, by trivial punishment
OF offenders against the oyster laws
caught red-handed in violations, and
oy men who make every attempt to
enact sensible and sufficient oyster
legislation the occasion of an attempt
ON their part to grab the public oys-
ter grounds that are worth having.
The oyster tonger-under the condi-
tons that have existed-has learned
that he can turn oyster pirate with
practical impunity aud violate the
oyster laws at will.
The inevitable was made plain at
the meeting of the local oyster pack
ers day before yesterday, when they
declared that unless something was
done they would find themselves in
the condition of Othello-their occu-
patton gone. And yet, to a man UP
a tree it would seem that the packers
have had in their own hands all the
time the means of enforcing the Gull
law. If. as they allege, many of the
oysters sold them are under the legal
size, it would seem that report of the
tonger who took them, in every case
would put stop to these violations
of the law-or rather this utter dis
regard of the law, for that is what
it comes to.
BE that is it may, the packers in
Offering to cooperate with the State
Board of Fisheries--whose zeal might
be proitably increased-are now un-
questonably on the right track, and
are working not only in their own
interest but the public interest as
we'll.
Meanwhile little added vigilance
on the part of oyster inspectors
would not be out of place. The oys-
ter packers say that on an average
every boat load of oysters contains
i've per cent. that are under the legal
size. We submit that it ia nonsense
to say that the inspectors cannot stop
that sort of thing. All that is neces-
sary is that the inspectors really in.
spect-and when they inspect prefer
charges.
tFFon Baltimore Herald, Wednesday,
Yesterday practically ended one
or the most disastrous seasons Chesa-
peake bay crabbers have ever known,
said Mr.. Sessions, of a. ID. Sessions