CHAP. 582.--An ACT to authorize the board of fisheries to declare certain land within the limits of the Baylor survey, on the eastern or ocean side of Accomac county, to be barren area and open for planting oysters thereon, and to authorize the assignm...

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That oyster ground within the Baylor survey, on the eastern or ocean side of said county, may be applied for to be leased from the State for the purpose of planting oysters thereon by any resident of this State in such manner, in such quantities, and on such terms as is now lawful to lease oyster ground outside of said survey; and upon receipt of an application under this act by the proper inspector, he shall refer the, same to the board of fisheries.

2. When the said board shall have received application or applications under the preceding section for not less than fifty contiguous acres, or when, in the opinion of said board, there are fifty or more contiguous acres within the limits of said survey on the eastern or ocean side of said county which are not natural oyster rock and ought to be leased out, said board shall give notice that such application or applications are before it, or that, in their opinion, certain ground within said survey in said county is not natural rock, and ought to be leased out for planting purposes, describing the ground to be affected with reasonable certainty, and stating when and where the application or applications will be acted upon, or if no application is before them, when and where they will determine whether said ground is not natural rock, and ought to be leased out, which notice shall be given by advertisement for four successive weeks in some newspaper published in. the county wherein said ground is located, if there be a paper published in said county, and by directing the inspector of the district wherein said ground is located to post copies of said advertisement at the front door of the courthouse of said county, and at three or more public places in the vicinity of the ground; and said board shall permit one or more residents of this State to enter themselves as contestants, and to contest and defend such application or applications, or to contest the opinion of said board that said ground is not natural rock, and ought to be leased out.

3. After such investigations and examinations as they deem proper, said board shall determine whether said ground naturally grows oysters in sufficient quantities to make the taking of the same profitable to practical oystermen in the manner that such oysters may be lawfully taken, and whether the same contains natural rock, bed, or shoal, so that oysters can catch in such quantities, and if said board shall determine that fifty contiguous acres or more does not naturally grow oysters in such quantities, and does not contain natural rock, bed, or shoal in such quantities, and ought to be leased out for planting purposes, said board shall cause the same to be properly ascertained, surveyed, and platted, and shall declare such ground to be barren area, and not natural rock, and shall so certify to the inspector of the district wherein said ground is located, and shall cause to be filed in the clerk's office of the county court of the county wherein the ground is located a survey or surveys of the same,, and when the action of said board shall have become final, all area embraced in such survey or surveys of barren area shall be construed, in all the courts of this Commonwealth, to be barren area, and disposable by the Commonwealth for the purpose of planting and propagating oysters thereon according to law, and so soon as the action of said board becomes final, said inspector shall be authorized to lease said ground out for planting purposes according to law.

The action of said board shall be final as to said ground after four
months from the date of the receipt by said inspector of the aforesaid
certificate from said board : provided, however, that not less than twenty
five residents of this State may within said four months file in the clerk's
office of the county court of the county wherein said ground is located a
petition in writing, under oath, alleging that ten or more adjacent acres
of natural oyster beds, rocks, or shoals have been included in said ground,
describing the location of same by a plat, or as near as may be with
reasonable certainty by such landmarks as will locate and designate the
rocks, beds, or shoals so included as aforesaid.

The said clerk shall docket the same in the county court, and at the next term of the said court the judge thereof shall appoint three commissioners, who shall be persons who have not been in any way connected with the examination and determination of the character of the said ground, and shall, by its order, direct them to ascertain and report to the court whether the facts contained in the said petition are true.

The said commissioners shall view and examine the alleged oyster rocks, beds, or shoals, and to that end may employ a competent surveyor to survey the same at the same rate paid to the county surveyor by law for similar services, administer an oath to and examine such witnesses as may appear before them, and make report to the court.

If the said commissioners shall report that less than ten adjacent acres of natural oyster rock, bed, or shoal have been included in said ground, the said petition shall be dismissed at the cost of the petitioners; but if the said commissioners shall ascertain and report to the court that ten or more adjacent acres of natural oyster rock, bed, or shoal have been included in said ground, they shall designate the same by plat or otherwise with reasonable certainty in their said report, which report shall be spread upon the records of the said court, and by the clerk certified to the said board of fisheries. Thereupon the said board shall direct a survey, under the direction of said commissioners, to be made of the area designated as natural rock, bed', or shoal in the report of said commissioners, and shall cause such survey to be filed in the clerk's office of said court as the Baylor survey was filed ; and when so filed, it shall be conclusive evidence in all the courts of this Commonwealth that the area embraced therein is natural oyster bed, rock, or shoal. The cost of the proceeding in the county court shall be paid by the Commonwealth, if the said commissioners shall report in favor of the petitioners.

5. All cost of said application or applications, including all meetings of the board of fisheries occasioned thereby, which meetings shall be held in the county wherein said ground is located, if uncontested, shall be borne by the applicant or applicants; and if such application be contested, all additional cost of every kind occasioned by such contest shall be borne either by the applicant or the contestant, and as between the applicant and contestant, said board shall judge cost in favor of the party substantially prevailing.

6. Every applicant under this act shall have prior right to lease so much of said ground applied for by him as may be adjudged planting ground until thirty days after the action of said board shall have become final.

7. This act shall apply only to the eastern or ocean side of the county of Accomac.

8. All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

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