Virginia § 28.2-530 Taking oysters or loading on vessel on Sunday or at night; penalty

Virginia Statutes

§ 28.2-530 — Taking oysters or loading on vessel on Sunday or at night; penalty

Virginia § 28.2-530

JurisdictionVirginia

Title 28.2FISHERIES AND HABITAT OF THE TIDAL WATERS

Subtitle IITIDAL FISHERIES

Ch. 5OYSTERS AND CLAMS

Art. 2FISHING FOR OYSTERS AND CLAMS; DEVICE RESTRICTIONS

This text of Virginia § 28.2-530 (Taking oysters or loading on vessel on Sunday or at night; penalty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Va. Code Ann. § 28.2-530 (2026).

Text

A.It shall be unlawful for any person to take oysters, from either public or private grounds, on Sunday or between sunset and sunrise; nor shall any person load any vessel or boat for such purpose with any oysters from any of the waters of the Commonwealth on Sunday or between sunset and sunrise.

B.Shucking oysters taken from the public grounds other than from designated seed areas may be unloaded on shore at packinghouses or loaded on trucks or motor vehicles one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise. Those oysters which have been inspected by an officer and purchased by the packer or planter, and the oysters owned by the packer or planter, may be unloaded at any time except Sunday within the discretion of the packer.

C.The provisions of subsection A shall not apply

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A. It shall be unlawful for any person to take oysters, from either public or private grounds, on Sunday or between sunset and sunrise; nor shall any person load any vessel or boat for such purpose with any oysters from any of the waters of the Commonwealth on Sunday or between sunset and sunrise.

B. Shucking oysters taken from the public grounds other than from designated seed areas may be unloaded on shore at packinghouses or loaded on trucks or motor vehicles one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise. Those oysters which have been inspected by an officer and purchased by the packer or planter, and the oysters owned by the packer or planter, may be unloaded at any time except Sunday within the discretion of the packer.

C. The provisions of subsection A shall not apply to (i) the taking or catching by hand during the prescribed hours of daylight on Sunday during the legally prescribed public oyster harvest season on public oyster grounds open for harvest or unleased bottom open for harvest, of not more than one bushel of oysters for personal use or (ii) the taking or catching of cultured oysters during the prescribed hours of daylight on Sunday. The presence on board a boat or other vehicle being used during any Sunday harvesting, except as part of an oyster aquaculture operation, of any gear normally associated with the harvesting of oysters other than by hand is prima facie evidence of a violation of the provisions of this section.

A violation of this section is a Class 3 misdemeanor.

Legislative History

Code 1950, § 28-195; 1958, c. 471; 1960, c. 517; 1962, c. 406, § 28.1-139; 1966, c. 684; 1975, c. 185; 1981, c. 119; 1992, c. 836; 1996, c. 434; 2016, c. 7.