CHAP. 151.--An ACT to amend and re-enact section 22 of an act entitled an act to revise, arrange, amend and consolidate into one act certain laws relating to oysters, fish, clams, crabs and other shell fish, and to repeal all acts or parts of acts of t...
Approved March 11, 1916.
1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an act entitled an act to revise, arrange, amend and consolidate into one act certain laws relating to oysters, fish, clams, crabs and other shellfish, and to repeal all acts or parts of acts of the general assembly, and any section or sections of the Code of Virginia in conflict with the provisions of this act, approved March seventeenth, nineteen hundred and ten, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:
Sec. 22. Hereafter it shall not be lawful for any person to take or catch oysters from any of the natural oyster beds, rocks or shoals in any of the waters of this Commonwealth, with tongs, or any other way, from the first day of May to the fifteenth day of September of each year; provided, that in all the waters of Virginia, on the western side of the Chesapeake bay from Mobjack bay and its tributaries, to the Potomac river (inclusive), the prohibited time shall be from the first day of April to the fifteenth day of September, and that in Broad bay, Long creek, Lickhorn bay, or in any of the tributaries thereof in the county of Princess Anne, the prohibited time shall be all the year, except the months of October and November. And if any person be found upon the natural rocks, beds or shoals of this Commonwealth during the prohibited season with tongs or other devices for taking or catching oysters, the same shall be prima facie- evidence of the violation of this act by the person so found thereupon, unless such person possesses a license to take or catch clams, or crabs with such tongs or other device during such prohibited season. And it shall not be lawful for any person to use or employ patent tongs for the purpose of taking or catching oysters or shells from the natural rocks, beds or shoals of the State at any time except during the months of October, November and December of each year, nor for any person to use patent tongs in the waters of the James, Nansemond, East or Piankatank rivers at any time. A person violating any provision of this section shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined,
not less than twenty-five dollars, nor more than one hundred dollars, and be confined in jail not less than ten days nor more than six months. This section shall not be construed as prohibiting the owner of planted oysters from working on or changing the location of said planted oysters or from shipping the same to market at any time at the option of the owner.
3. By reason of the fact that the natural rocks, beds and shoals of the waters of James river are overstocked with natural-grown planting seed oysters, the removal of which would be beneficial to the oyster industry of this State, an emergency is declared to exist and this act shall be in force from its passage.