Forest and Stream, May 10, 1877

STATE RIGHTS IN OYSTER BEDS.

Sea -- Shellfish - Oystering : LitigationSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : Planting

In the case of McCreay vs. the State of Virginia (error to the Virginia Court of Appeals), the United States Supreme Court has decided as follows:

The State of Virginia can prohibit the citizens of other States from planting oysters in tide-water within her jurisdiction, while permitting her own people to do so. The ownership of the tide-waters and their beds is that of the people of the State in their united sovereignty, subject to the paramount right of navigation, the regulation of which, in respect to foreign and inter-State commerce, has been granted to the United States. There has, however, been no such grant of power over the fisheries. These remain under the exclusive control of the State, which has consequently the right in its discretion to appropriate its tide-waters and their beds to be used by its people as a common for taking and cultivating fish so far as it may be done without obstructing navigation. Such an appropriation is in effect nothing more than a regulation of the use of the people of their common property. This right of the people of the State comes not from their citizenship alone, but from their citizenship and property combined. It is, in fact, a property right, and not a mere privilege or immunity of citizenship.