Chap. 404.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 3292 of the Code of rarginia
as amended by an act approved March 15, 1922. [Ss 336}

Approved March 20, 1924.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
thirty-two hundred and ninety-two of the Code of Virginia, as amended
by an act approved March fifteenth, nineteen hundred and twenty-two,
be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 3292. Licenses to take crabs; amount of tax; restric-
tions on privilege; display of license numbers and _letters.—Any
resident of this State desiring to take or catch crabs from the waters
thereof by any of the means hereinafter mentioned, or any person
desiring to engage in the business of buying or marketing crabs for
picking or canning the same in any way, shall pay to the oyster in-
spector of the district in which he resides, the following license tax
and inspector’s fee: ,

(1) For each person working in any boat in taking or catching
soft crabs with scrapes, or hard crabs with nets or ordinary trot lines,
or soft crabs with ordinary trot lines or with nets other than dip nets,
two dollars, and an inspector’s fee of fifty cents, and on patent trot
lines, ten dollars and an inspector’s fee of fifty cents; provided no
steam or motor boat shall be used in the taking or catching of soft
crabs; provided, further, that it shall be unlawful for any person to
use ordinary trot lines or patent trot lines for the taking or catching
of hard crabs, or planted grounds of private individuals in the waters
of Wormeley’s creek, which flows into the York river.

(2) For each said boat to be used for the purpose of taking or
catching hard crabs with scrapes or tongs, and for each power boat
under thirty-two feet in length used for the purpose of taking or catch-
ing hard crabs with scrapes or tongs, five dollars and an inspector’s
fee of seventy-five cents.

(3) For each power boat over thirty-two feet in length used for
the purpose of taking or catching hard crabs with scrapes, twenty-five
dollars and an inspector’s fee of one dollar.

(4) For each picking or crating house, ten dollars and an inspect-
or’s fee of one dollar.

(5) For each canning and packing house, twenty-five dollars and
an inspector’s fee of one dollar.

(6) For each boat used in buying crabs, or for each person or
firm engaged in marketing hard crabs by barrel or crate, five dollars
and an inspector’s fee of fifty cents; but no person who is duly licensed
to catch crabs shall be required to procure further license for market-
ing or shipping his own catch. No scrapes or dredges shall be used
for catching hard crabs between the first day of May and the first day
of December of any year, nor shall-it be lawful for any person to dredge
for crabs on the planted grounds of private individuals, or any of the
natural rocks of this Commonwealth, or to dredge for crabs or clams
on any of the public grounds of this Commonwealth, from which clams
are taken by tongers using ordinary or patent tongs, nor shall any
person catch, take or have in possession at any time a hard crab, other
than one in the peeler stage, which shall measure less than five inches
across the shell from tip to tip of spike, nor any soft crab measuring
less than three inches from tip to tip of spike, nor shall any person
take, catch, or have in possession at any time between the fifteenth
day of June and the first day of September, an egg-bearing female
crab, known as “spawn crab,” “sponge crab,” ‘blooming female crab,”’
or “mother crab,” or such a female crab from which the egg or bunion
has been removed.

In licensing persons for taking crabs, the oyster inspector shall
cause to be placed upon the starboard prow of such person’s boat the
number of such license in conspicuous figures of not less than five
inches in length, preceded in all cases by the number of oyster district
and the letter “C’’, and within the ‘“C” the number of persons licensed
on such boat, for example, ‘four-C-two one” (4C2 1) means district
number four, license number one, and two persons licensed. Said
number and letters shall be kept displayed during the crabbing season
by the master of the boat. No person shall be authorized under the
provisions of this section or otherwise, to locate or maintain any net
or nets in the waters of Hampton Roads adjacent to the county of
Elizabeth City, between Old Point Comfort and Newport News Point,
at a distance of less than three hundred yards from any other stand or
stands. Any person failing to comply with any of the provisions of
this section, or in any way violating the same, shall be fined not less
than ten nor more than two hundred dollars for each offense.

2. An emergency existing, this act shall be effective from its pas-
sage.