---
type: "Bill"
title: "Game and fish; provide for mariculture development"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 4 of Chapter 4 of Title 27 of the O.C.G.A., relating to seafood, so as to provide for mariculture development; to amend Code Section 12-5-295 of the O.C.G.A., relating to applicability of activities in coastal marshlands, so as to revise and add an exemption certain; to provide for related matters; to provide for effective dates and applicability; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2019_20"
identifier: "HB 501"
citation: "Georgia HB 501 (2019_20)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Al Williams", "Carl Gilliard", "Don Hogan", "Jesse Petrea", "Ron Stephens", "Steven Sainz"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 15
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2019-02-26"
last_action: "2019-05-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ffc9d766-1672-408a-a4ef-d38e9aa0fdd9"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "59a304d9e506cf4ea49a6a9da564b2663e706dd827f6c3921dff6583edbdde45"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia HB 501 (2019_20) — Game and fish; provide for mariculture development

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 4 of Chapter 4 of Title 27 of the O.C.G.A., relating to seafood, so as to provide for mariculture development; to amend Code Section 12-5-295 of the O.C.G.A., relating to applicability of activities in coastal marshlands, so as to revise and add an exemption certain; to provide for related matters; to provide for effective dates and applicability; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **HB 501/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/185110.pdf)
2. **LC 45 0255ER/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/182967.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **102–60** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Al Williams — primary (person)
- Carl Gilliard — primary (person)
- Don Hogan — primary (person)
- Jesse Petrea — primary (person)
- Ron Stephens — primary (person)
- Steven Sainz — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-02-26** House Hopper
- **2019-02-27** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2019-02-28** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2019-03-01** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-05** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2019-03-05** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2019-03-07** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-13** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-14** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2019-03-18** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2019-03-18** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2019-04-08** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-05-06** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2019-05-06** Act 217 `executive-signature`
- **2019-05-06** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ffc9d766-1672-408a-a4ef-d38e9aa0fdd9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).