CHAP. 31.--An ACT to amend and re-enact section 23, chapter 243, of the acts of the general assembly of 1910, entitled an act to revise, amend, consolidate into one act certain laws relating to oysters, fish, clams, crabs, and other shell fish, and to ...

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section twenty-three, of chapter two hundred and forty-three of the acts of the general assembly, approved March seventeenth, nineteen hundred and ten, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:
Sec. 23. Any resident of this State having a boat to be used in taking or catching oysters with tongs from the natural rocks, beds, or shoals, shall apply to the inspector of the district where he resides to have said boat registered.
The inspector shall register such boat and prescribe for it a number corresponding with the number of boats registered, which number for boats and number of district shall be displayed as hereinafter provided. For said registration annually the owner shall pay to the inspector, for all kinds of boats a fee of fifty cents.
Where patent tongs are to be used on any such boat, the inspector shall register and number said boat as follows: The stamp or mark shall be P. T., and the number of boat registered, and under the name of the boat the number of his district. For example, "P. T. 1", showing that the boat is registered for patent tongs, number one, and registered in district number one, in Accomac county.
The numbers and letters should be not less than four inches in height, and shall be stamped in black upon thin white board, which shall be furnished by the inspector to the applicant, and fastened securely by said applicant on the starboard prow of his boat.
Any person violating this section shall be fined not less than ten, nor more than fifty dollars for each offence. For the purpose of registering boats as aforesaid, the oyster portion of the State shall be kept laid off into districts by the commission of fisheries.