CHAPTER 510

AN ACT to amend and reenact § 28-158 of the Code of 1950 to
make the taking of dredging or scraping equipment into
certain prohibited areas subject to the penalty that is
applicable to dredging or scraping in those areas.

[ H 364 ]
Approved April 7, 1950

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 28-158 of the Code of 1950 be amended and reenacted
as follows:

§ 28-158. Dredging planting ground.—(1) Permit re-
quired.—It shall be lawful for any resident of this State hold-
ing under legal assignment oyster-planting ground and having
paid the rent therefor, to dredge or scrape the same at any time,
except on Sunday or at night; provided he obtain from the Com-
mission of Fisheries a permit to do so, such permit to show date
of issue and date of expiration, which expiration date shall not
be for a period longer than the date to which his rent is paid.

(2) Revocation of privilege.—Such privilege of dredging or
scraping such oyster planting ground may be revoked in any
case by the Commission of Fisheries, or Commissioner, when-
ever, in its judgment, it may be proper or necessary to do so.

(3) Marking ground.—No person shall have or enjoy the
privilege hereinbefore granted of dredging or scraping his oys-
ter-planting ground unless he shall have first properly desig-
nated and marked the oyster lines of his planting ground by
placing prominent and fixed buoys thereon by means of anchors,
or in any other manner sufficient to hold them in place, such
buoys to be so many inches in diameter and to extend so far
above water as the Commission of Fisheries, or the Commis-
sioner, may direct, and the same shall be kept up and maintained
so as to distinctly mark the outer line or lines of such planting
ground. The buoys shall be painted white, and shall have the
initials of the person or firm whose property they are placed
upon them near the top, in black letters, of not less than five
inches in length.

(4) Marking boats.—Such initials shall also be placed upon
each side of the prow of any boat or craft used or employed in
dredging or scraping such planting ground, if propelled by motor,
or upon opposite sides of mainsail and jib, if operated by sail.

(5) Bond required.—Nor shall any person have or enjoy
the privilege hereinbefore granted of dredging or scraping his
oyster-planting ground unless and until he enter into a bond be-
fore the clerk of the county in which he resides in the sum of five
hundred dollars, payable as required in Sec. 49-12, upon condition
not to violate the provisions of any laws pertaining to the dredg-
ing or scraping of planting ground.

(6) Nonresident crew, etc., prohibited.—No person or firm
so engaged in dredging or scraping shall employ, in whole or in
part, any nonresident crew, unless by written permission of the
Commissioner of Fisheries, or employ any boat or craft of any
kind owned, in whole or in part, by any nonresident of this Com-
monwealth in the dredging or scraping of such oyster-planting

un

(7) * It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to have
in his or their possession, or on his or their boat, whether such
boat be in operation or not, in any of the tidal waters of the
Commonwealth of Virginia any equipped dredge, scrape or other
instrument of like nature, * or device of any kind used in the
dredging of oysters, including all buoys, lights or otherwise,
without first obtaining written permission to do so from the
Commissioner of Fisheries.

(8) Penalty for violation—Any person found guilty of
dredging or scraping oyster-planting grounds in this State, *
or of having in his possession or on his boat, whether such boat
be in operation or not, in any of the tidal waters of the Com-
monwealth of Virginia any equipped dredge, scrape or other
unstrument of like nature, or device of any kind used in the
dredging of oysters, including all buoys, lights, or otherwise,
without first obtaining written permission to do so from the
Commissioner of Fisheries shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.