P.R. Laws tit. 5, § 1501
(a) The sum of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) is hereby appropriated to the Secretary of Agriculture from unencumbered funds in the Commonwealth Treasury to carry out a program of investigations and development of commercial fishing on a commercial scale. Said appropriation may be matched with funds contributed by the Government of the United States, to carry out the purposes of this section.
(b) The resources appropriated by this section shall be used by the Secretary of Agriculture exclusively for the purposes and execution of said program and the appropriations that can be made in following years as well as the reimbursements of the Government of the United States shall be considered as appropriations of a nonfiscal character. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to advance to the Secretary of Agriculture, the amount of the reimbursements that the Government of the United States shall make in the proportion provided by law, after the presentation of documents crediting the approval of each project by the corresponding authorities of said Government.
(c) The Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized to use in the said program, the remaining portion of the appropriations made therefor during previous years by the Legislature, provided, they are used for the same purposes of said appropriations.
(d) The Secretary of Agriculture is hereby empowered to assist and cooperate with fishermen individually or organized in cooperatives, partnerships, family groups, or otherwise, or with the fishery contractors, who are willing to collaborate with the Department of Agriculture, for the purposes of an efficient and adequate fishing development, by offering them in lease or in usufruct, gratuitously or onerously, the facilities of the fishing ports already established or to be established thereafter by the Department of Agriculture, such as docks, lockers, storage rooms for the fish, ice plants or fish canning plants, shipyards or others. He shall also be empowered to contract with public, private or government enterprises, for the aforementioned purposes, including the carrying out of exploratory investigations on fishing on a commercial or semicommercial scale, and to dispose of the fish caught during said investigations in the manner that he may deem convenient, including its scale, donation or dation in partial or total payment to the persons or entities with whom he contracted for such effects.
(e) Out of the funds appropriated by this section, there shall be used the sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for the Fishing Ports Development Program, in the Municipalities of Guanica, Guayanilla, Patillas, Santa Isabel and Ponce, at the rate of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) in each port.
(f) The Secretary of Agriculture is hereby empowered to receive donations or contributions from the municipalities, persons, or public and private entities for the ends and purposes of this section and to take steps to obtain the pertinent federal contributions.
(g) The personnel appointed for the administration of the program created by this section shall be included in the Exempt Service in accordance with the law which creates the Office of Personnel of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Act No. 345 of May 12, 1947, as amended.
History —June 21, 1968, J.R. No. 91, p. 736, §§ 1—6, and 6A added Apr. 26, 1972, J.R. No. 17, p. 267.