NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1967 SESSION

CHAPTER 878
HOUSE BILL 1142

AN ACT TO AMEND G.S. 113-203 SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NATURAL SEED OYSTER AREAS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1.  Section 113-203 of the General Statutes of North Carolina, as the same appears in the 1966 Replacement Volume 3A, is hereby amended by redesignating subsection (d) thereof as subsection (e) and by adding a new subsection (d) to read as follows:
"(d)	It is lawful to transplant to private beds in North Carolina oysters taken from public beds designated by the Board as Natural Seed Oyster Areas. Such areas shall be designated as Natural Seed Oyster Areas in the following manner:
"A petition shall be filed with the Commissioner by the board of county commissioners of the county in which such area is located requesting the designation of and describing the area proposed as a Natural Seed Oyster Area. Upon the receipt of the petition, the Commissioner shall, within six weeks of the receipt by him of such petition, cause an investigation of the area proposed to be designated as a Natural Seed Oyster Area. Such investigation shall be made by qualified biologists of the Division of Commercial and Sports Fisheries. The Commissioner shall then make a recommendation to the Board as to whether the area described in the petition should be designated as a Natural Seed Oyster Area and such area shall be so designated by the Board only after the Commissioner so recommends as being in the best interests of the State.
"The Commissioner shall issue permits to all qualified individuals who are residents of North Carolina without regard to county of residence to transplant seed oysters from said designated Natural Seed Oyster Areas, setting out the quantity which may be taken, the times which the taking is permissible and other reasonable restrictions imposed to aid him in his duty of regulating such transplanting operations. Any transplanting operation which does not substantially comply with the restrictions of the permit issued is unlawful."
Sec. 2.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.
Sec. 3.  This Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 21st day of June, 1967.