Mississippi Code Title 49. Conservation and Ecology § 49-15-5

All seafoods existing or living in waters within the territorial jurisdiction of the State of Mississippi not held in private ownership legally acquired, and all beds and bottoms of rivers, streams, bayous, lagoons, lakes, bays, sounds and inlets bordering on or connecting with the Gulf of Mexico or Mississippi Sound within such territorial jurisdiction, including all oysters and other shell fish and parts thereof grown thereon, either naturally or cultivated, shall be, continue, and remain the property of the State of Mississippi, to be held in trust for the people thereof until title thereto shall be legally divested in the manner and form hereinafter authorized, and the same shall be under the exclusive control of the department until the right of private ownership shall vest therein as hereinafter provided.