The preable states '...the existing Statute Law is insufficient to preserve from exhaustion the natural supplies of marine and other edible fishes'.

The Act's preamble states that it has several purposes, including:
to check the wanton or unnecessary destruction of immature fish and to prevent the disturbance of the various nurseries and breeding grounds during certain months of the year; and
for greater facilities to be given for the establishment of artificial oyster-beds and more effective means be supplied for the preservation and development of natural oyster-beds