Time Limit

I have to look into it some more regarding Sundays. In this regulation it only applies to commercial crabbing.

l4 VAC 20-270-10 ET SEQ.

PREAMBLE

This chapter establishes time limits, season limits, peeler pot limits and peeler and softshell crab minimum size limits for commercial crabbing in Virginia and is promulgated pursuant to authority contained in §§28.2-201and 28.2-700 of the Code of Virginia. This chapter amends and re-adopts, as amended, previous Chapter 4VAC20-270-10 et seq., which was promulgated March 24, 2009 and made effective on March 26, 2009. The effective date of this chapter, as amended, is June 1, 2009.

4VAC20-270-10. Purpose.

The purpose of this chapter is to allow for the conservation and rebuilding of the crab resource and to improve the enforceability of other laws pertaining to crabbing.

4VAC20-270-20. Sunday prohibition and limited exception for possession of male hard crabs.

It shall be unlawful to take or catch crabs for commercial purposes on Sunday. This section shall not apply to the harvest of peeler crabs by crab traps or peeler pots or to the working of floats, pens, or onshore facilities for soft crab shedding operations. Any person licensed to harvest peeler crabs by peeler pot may harvest one bushel of male crabs from his peeler pots on Sunday strictly for the purpose of baiting his peeler pots, and such crabs may not be sold.

4VAC20-270-30. Daily time limits.

A. It shall be unlawful for any person licensed to catch and sell crabs taken by crab pot or peeler pot to take and harvest crabs from any crab pot or peeler pot, or to retrieve, bait or set any crab pot or peeler pot, except during the lawful daily time periods described in this subsection or subsection B of this section. The lawful daily time periods for the commercial harvesting of crabs by crab pot or peeler pot shall be from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. from March 17 through April 30 and September 1 through November 30, except as described in subsection C of this section, and from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. during the months of May, June, July, and August, except as specified in subsection B of this section. Crab pots or peeler pots already on board a boat at the end of the lawful daily time period, as defined in this subsection or subsection B of this section, may be set during the period starting immediately following the lawful daily time period and ending one hour after the lawful daily time period.

B. Any licensed crab pot or peeler pot fisherman who provides an opinion and supporting documentation from an attending physician to the commissioner of an existing medical condition that prevents him from adhering to the daily time limit established in subsection A of this section may be permitted by the commissioner or his designee to take and harvest crabs from his crab pot or peeler pot, or to retrieve, bait or set his crab pot or peeler pot during an alternate eight-hour daily time limit. That alternative eight-hour daily time limit will be prescribed by the commissioner or his designee in accordance with the medical condition that forms a basis for the exception to the daily time limit as described in subsection A of this section.

Nothing in this regulation shall prohibit any licensed crab pot or peeler pot fisherman, who has been granted an exception to the eight-hour work schedule, on a medical basis, from using another licensed crab pot or peeler pot fisherman as a mate, provided; however, during the designated alternate work hours, only the crab pots or peeler pots of the fisherman receiving the exception shall be fished. Further, it shall be unlawful for the licensed crab fisherman, who has been granted an exception, or his mate, who is a licensed crab pot or peeler pot fisherman, to fish, set, retrieve, or bait, during the alternate work hours, any crab pot or peeler pot that is not owned and licensed by the fisherman granted the exception.

C. The lawful daily time periods for the commercial harvest of crabs by crab pot or peeler pot may be rescinded by the Commissioner of Marine Resources when he determines that a pending weather event is sufficient cause for the removal of crab pots from the tidal waters of the Commonwealth.

4VAC20-270-40. Season limits. . . .