                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

TAKING OYSTERS OR LOADING ON VESSEL ON SUNDAY OR AT NIGHT; PENALTY (§ 28.2-530)

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.

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.