CHAPTER 252

An Act to amend and reenact § 28.1-96 of the Code of Virginia, relating
to carrying oysters out of State or buying for that purpose; permits
requtred.

[H 298]

Approved March 31, 1966

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

a That § 28.1-96 of the Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted as
ollows:

§ 28.1-96. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation
to carry, or attempt to carry, or to buy for the purpose of carrying out
of this State, any oysters taken from the natural rocks, beds, or shoals in
the waters of this Commonwealth until he has first obtained for each cargo
a permit to do so from the inspector from whose district the cargo is to
be taken, or from the captain of one of the police boats, and has paid to
the inspector or police boat captain the required tax per bushel on the
number of bushels in the cargo. Such permit shall be signed by the Com-
missioner of Fisheries and countersigned by the inspector or police boat
captain; and it shall be the duty of the Commission to grant such permit
* unless, after examination of the seed areas, it shall ascertain that it will
* injure or deplete the seed areas to grant such permits, and that the
supply of seed oysters is * insufficient to meet the demand for seed oysters
by planters in the State of Virginia, and provided that the Commission
shall have power to cease granting of such permits whenever it shall
ascertain that the seed areas are becoming depleted, and that to continue
to grant such permits would seriously injure the same.