Chap. 179.—An ACT to provide for keeping open and unobstructed by
fixed fishing devices continuous passages or ways to permit fish from
the ocean and the waters of the Chesapeake bay to ascend the rivers
of the State to the localities in which shad deposit their spawn; to
provide for designating, defining or marking the said passages or
ways and the said spawning localities; to prohibit the use of fixed
fishing devices in said passages or ways and of haul seines in the said
spawning localities; defining violations of the act and fixing penalties
therefor. (H. B. 359.)

Approved March 16, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
for the protection of fish and in order to permit them to reach
the localities in the rivers of the State in which shad deposit
their spawn, the commission of fisheries is directed to designate,
define or have marked by suitable buoys or stakes, whenever
said buoys or stakes may be advisable, continuous passages or
ways from the ocean, through the waters of the Chesapeake
bay, to and up the rivers of the State through said spawning
localities. which said passages or ways are to be kept open and
unobstructed by any fixed fishing devices; and the said com-
mission is further directed to designate, define or have marked
by suitable buoys or stakes the said spawning localities in said
rivers.

The said passages or ways from the deep waters of the Ches-
apeake bay to the mouth of any river shall be at least one-half
as wide as the mouth of said river, and in said rivers said pas-
sages or ways at the narrowest point of said rivers shall be at
least half the width of the said rivers at those points.

The said commission before designating, defining or mark-
ing said passages or ways and said spawning areas, shall hold
meetings at convenient places in tidewater Virginia for the pur-
pose of hearing and considering all interests which may be
affected by the action of said commission under the authority
hereby conferred. The time and place of said meetings shall
be properly advertised, and the conclusions of the said commis-
sion in designating, defining or marking said passages or ways
and said spawning localities shall be published and placed in
the hands of the various oyster inspectors for distribution.

2. After the first day of January, nineteen hundred and
seventeen, it shall be unlawful to fish with any fixed device in
any of the passages or ways which shall have been designated,
defined or marked as hereinbefore provided, and it shall also be
unlawful to fish during the spawning season with any haul seine
over three hundred feet in length in any of the spawning locali-
ties which shall have been designated, defined or marked as
hereinbefore provided. Any person violating either provision
of this act shall be fined not less than twenty-five nor more than
one hundred dollars, or confined in jail not less than ten days
nor more than six months, and any net or seine used in violat-
ing either of the provisions of this act shall be forfeited to the
State. It shall be the duty of all oyster inspectors and oyster
police to report any violations of the provisions of this act to
the commission of fisheries, whereupon the said commission or
its chairman or secretary shall cause some one of the oyster po-
lice officials to take up and remove any such net or fixed fishing
device and sel the same and account for the proceeds of sale
in accordance with the provisions of sub-section three of section
Cmeney undred and eighty-six of the Code of Virginia as
amended.