GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1985 SESSION
CHAPTER 996
AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A PENALTY FOR DAMAGE TO ARTIFICIAL REEFS AND MARKING DEVICES TO IDENTIFY REEFS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1. Article 20 of Chapter 113 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 113-266. Interference with artificial reef marking devices. - It shall be a general misdemeanor, punishable in the discretion of the court pursuant to G.S. 14-3, for any person to destroy, injure, relocate, or remove any navigational aids, buoys, markers, or other devices lawfully set out by the Division of Marine Fisheries in connection with the marking of any artificial reef in the coastal waters of the State and in the Atlantic Ocean to the seaward extent of the State's jurisdiction as now or hereafter defined."
Sec. 2. G.S. 113-264(b) is amended by deleting the word "Willful" and substituting the following phrase before the word "removal":
"Unless a different level of punishment is elsewhere set out, willful".
Sec. 3. G.S. 113-265(e) is amended by addition after the words "fishing or fishery" of the following:
", except as provided in G.S. 113-266,".
Sec. 4. This act shall become effective October 1, 1986.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 12th day of July, 1986.