By Seaman                                        H.B. No. 773

      75R1497 MLR-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to vessels and obstructions in fish passes.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Sections 66.204(a) and (b), Parks and Wildlife

 1-5     Code, are amended to read as follows:

 1-6           (a)  The commission by proclamation may regulate the

 1-7     placement of obstructions, traps, and mooring in fish passes and

 1-8     the marking of restricted areas in any natural or artificial pass

 1-9     that is opened, reopened, dredged, excavated, constructed, or

1-10     maintained by the department as a fish pass between the Gulf of

1-11     Mexico and an inland bay.

1-12           (b)  No person may operate, possess, or moor a vessel or

1-13     other floating device, or may place any piling, wire, rope, cable,

1-14     net, trap, or other obstruction, in a natural or artificial pass

1-15     opened, reopened, dredged, excavated, constructed, or maintained by

1-16     the department as a fish pass between the Gulf of Mexico and an

1-17     inland bay [,] within the [a] distance [of 2,800 feet] inside the

1-18     pass  [measured] from the mouth of the pass where it empties into

1-19     [or opens on] the Gulf of Mexico and a permanent marker or sign

1-20     erected by the department indicating the restricted area.

1-21           [(b)  The department shall erect permanent iron or concrete

1-22     monuments showing the restricted area.]

1-23           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-4     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-5     passage, and it is so enacted.