An Act to amend and reenact § 46.1-299, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, relating to devices signalling intention to turn or stop and rules therefor.
Volume 1968 Law 99
Law Body
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 the general assembly, and any
section or sections of the Code of Virginia in conflict with the pro-
visions of this act, approved March 17, 1910. (H. B. 110.)
Approved March 11, 1916.
1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
en 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 fif-
teenth 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 (in-
clusive), 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 catch-
ing 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 pro-
vision 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 pro-
hibiting the owner of planted oysters from working on or chang-
ing 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.