A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to appropriate funds to support the UNC institute of marine SCIENCES' shellfish restoration project.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina the sum of three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) for the 2007‑2008 fiscal year and the sum of three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) for the 2008‑2009 fiscal year to be allocated to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City to fund a shellfish restoration project to counteract the cownose ray explosion, which feed on shellfish in North Carolina.  These funds may be used to support the following:
(1)	Restoration of the North Carolina bay scallop, the fishery for which has been closed for three years.
(2)	Conduct a pilot project to protect oyster sanctuaries from cownose ray and skate predation to help restore native oysters, the reef habitat they create, and their water‑quality benefits.
(3)	Evaluate and combat the damage done by cownose rays and skates to seagrass nursery habitat as they forage for clams.
SECTION 2.  The Institute of Marine Sciences shall make an annual report by December 1 to the Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture on the use of these funds.
SECTION  3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2007.