CHAP. 967.--An ACT to provide for the registration of any person, being a resident of this state, who desires to take or catch oysters, for sale or planting, from the natural rocks or shoals on the eastern or ocean side of Accomac and Northampton count...

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That any person, being a resident of the state, who shall be desirous of catching or taking oysters, for sale or planting, from the natural rocks, beds or shoals on the eastern or ocean side of Accomac and Northampton counties, shall apply to the inspector of the district in which he resides for registration. He shall furnish the inspector, on oath, with his name, place of residence, district and county, the water courses in which he designs to take or catch oysters, and the kind of boat or craft to be used or employed by him. Thereupon the inspector shall register him; and if any person shall be found catching or taking oysters for sale or planting in the foregoing waters, without being registered in accordance with the provisions of this section, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor; and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than ten nor more than twenty-five dollars.

2. Any resident of this state owning a skiff, scow, bateau, or other small craft, to be used in taking or catching oysters, for sale or planting, from the natural rocks, beds or shoals on the eastern or ocean side of Accomac or Northampton counties, shall apply to the inspector of the county or district in which he resides before using or employing the same for the purpose of taking oysters as aforesaid, and have such boat registered. The inspector shall register said boat, and prescribe for said boat a number corresponding with the number of boats registered, which number of boat and number of district he shall cause to be plainly marked or stamped upon the prow of said boat. For each registration, annually, the owner of said boat shall pay to the inspector a fee of one dollar and twenty-five cents, twenty-five cents of which shall go to the inspector, and one dollar shall be returned by said inspector, with his monthly report, to the oyster fund of the state. Any skiff, scow, bateau, or other small boat, used for the taking of oysters, for sale or planting, from the natural rocks, beds or shoals in the waters before mentioned, not registered, shall be taken in charge by the inspector, or any officer having authority under the board of fisheries, and if the owner can be found he shall be fined not less than five nor more than twenty dollars, to be recovered according to law; if the owner cannot be found the inspector is directed and hereby authorized to advertise said boat for thirty days, and if no person claims said boat the inspector is authorized to sell the same at public auction and turn over the proceeds of sale, less the cost of advertising and expenses of sale, to the auditor of public accounts, together with a report of his action in the matter, a duplicate of which report shall be likewise forwarded to the board of fisheries.

3. The board of fisheries
is hereby empowered and directed, at the discretion of said board, to expend so much of the fund accruing under the provisions of this act as may be necessary to police the waters on the eastern or ocean side of said counties of Accomac and Northampton for the enforcement of the state laws relating to oysters, fish, clams, crabs and terrapin; and said board shall have authority to use at its discretion any suitable boat belonging to the oyster navy, or to employ other boats and crews under like restrictions and with like police authority as are now accorded by law to other vessels and steamers of the oyster navy: provided, however, that no money shall be expended in the purchasing of any police boat or boats, or in equipping the same, or in the employment of crews or maintaining the same, except as may be collected from the taxes, rentals, fees and fines accruing from the oyster and fisheries fund derived from said eastern or ocean side of Accomac and Northampton counties.

4. All acts or parts of acts in conflict with this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed in so far as they may be in conflict with this act.

5. This act shall be in force from its passage.