Game, Inland Fisheries and Boating

Passed

P HB1646

Hunter education. Requires any person (i) who is 12 years of age or older; (ii) who is required to present a certificate of completion in hunter education to obtain a hunting license; and (iii) who is issued a hunting license by telephone, the Internet, or other electronic or computerized means, to carry his certificate of completion in hunter education on his person while hunting. This bill exempts any person who is 12 years of age through 15 years of age from this requirement if he is accompanied and directly supervised by an adult who has, on his person, a valid Virginia hunting license and certificate, if required.
Patron - Orrock

P HB1668

Game warden salaries. Repeals a 1950 Act of Assembly that requires Dickenson and Buchanan Counties to pay the salaries of the game wardens providing services to those counties. This law is no longer needed since all regular game wardens are employees of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and as such are paid by the Commonwealth.
Patron - Landes

P HB1669

Hunting with a rifle. Repeals a 1954 Act of Assembly that prohibits persons from hunting deer with a rifle in Essex County. This local act is no longer necessary since (i) the County has adopted an ordinance that prohibits the hunting of deer with a rifle greater than .22 caliber and (ii) the Game Department's regulations prohibit the hunting or killing of deer and bear with a rifle less than .23 caliber.
Patron - Landes

P HB1670

Hunting game. Repeals a 1952 Act of Assembly that prohibits hunting game in Buckingham County with a rifle larger than .22 caliber. This local act is no longer necessary since the County has adopted an ordinance that prohibits hunting game with such rifles. A locality is given the authority to adopt such a prohibition under § 29.1-528.
Patron - Landes

P HB1671

Carrying loaded firearms. Repeals a 1950 Act of Assembly that prohibited a person who is not authorized to hunt on private property on both sides of a highway from carrying a loaded firearm while on any part of the highway. This act applies in any county falling under certain population classifications. A person violating this act is subject to a fine of between $10 and $50. The act is no longer needed because the language of § 15.2-1209.1 is substantively the same, except the statute gives all counties the discretion of adopting an ordinance, while the uncodified act gives counties no such discretion.
Patron - Landes

P HB1827

Wildlife mounts. Allows nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organizations to sell wildlife mounts as part of their fundraising activities.
Patron - Janis

P HB1917

Carrying a gun on Sunday; hunting. Clarifies that a person lawfully carrying a gun, firearm, or other weapon on Sunday in an area that could be used for hunting will not be presumed to be hunting on Sunday in violation of existing law, absent evidence to the contrary. This bill incorporates HB 1913.
Patron - Cole

P HB2029

Nonindigenous aquatic nuisance species; penalty. Imposes Class 1 misdemeanor penalty on anyone who knowingly introduces a snakehead fish into the Commonwealth. Under the current law any person who imports, possesses, transports, sells, purchases or introduces into the Commonwealth any nonindigenous aquatic nuisance species is subject to a civil penalty of not more than $25,000, which is paid into the Game Protection Fund, as well as the costs incurred by the state and local government for the investigation, control, and eradication of the species. The bill includes an exemption from this civil penalty for a person who catches a snakehead fish if the individual has lawfully taken the fish, killed it, and reported his actions to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Patron - Amundson

P HB2102

Blaze orange exception. Exempts persons hunting with a bow and arrow from having to wear blaze orange when they are hunting in areas where the discharge of firearms is prohibited by state law or local ordinance.
Patron - Hugo

P HB2155

Selling of animal parts at auction. Allows licensed Virginia auctioneers and auction firms to sell, as a legitimate item of an auction, wildlife mounts that have undergone the taxidermy process.
Patron - Nutter

P HB2200

Crossbow license. Authorizes the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries to create a special crossbow license allowing the purchaser to hunt with such a weapon during special archery seasons. The cost of the license will be set by the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries, but cannot exceed one and one-half times the cost of a basic hunting license. Under current law, only disabled people who meet certain agency criteria are allowed to hunt with a crossbow. To hunt with a crossbow, a person must also purchase the special archery license and the basic hunting license.
Patron - Abbitt

P HB2273

Remote hunting prohibited; penalty. Prohibits anyone from engaging in computer-assisted remote hunting, or provide or operate a facility that allows a person to engage in such "hunting." Violations are Class 1 misdemeanors and will result in revocation of any hunting license for between three and five years. This bill is identical to SB 1083.
Patron - Oder

P HB2689

Offshore blind stake sites; penalty. Gives the owners, their lessees or permittees of land that is adjacent to the waters in Stafford, Prince William, and Fairfax, the exclusive privilege of erecting stationary blinds on their shoreline. Under this bill, which amends a 1928 Act of Assembly, they are also given the prior right to erect stationary blinds in the waters in front of their property. However, they forfeit the privilege and the prior right if they do not erect the blind by November 1. This bill would increase the penalty for violation of the act to a Class 2 misdemeanor from the current fine of between $10 and $100 or confinement in jail for no more than a year, or both. The bill also removes the prohibition on hunting migratory waterfowl from floating blinds in the waters of Caroline, Essex, King George, Richmond and Westmoreland Counties, and in portions of creeks, streams, and bays flowing into the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, through the establishment of an offshore blind stake site license. The cost of a stake site license is $5 and there is a limit of four stake site licenses per applicant. The bill describes the various siting requirements and times when and by whom the stake site license has to be obtained. The penalty for violation of the act is increased from a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $250 or by confinement in jail for not more than 30 days, or both, to a Class 2 misdemeanor.
Patron - Pollard

P HB2887

Duck stamp. Establishes the Virginia Migratory Waterfowl Conservation Stamp. A person must obtain this $9.75 stamp in order to hunt migratory waterfowl. The proceeds from the sale of the stamp will be deposited in a special account to be used to fund (i) expenses associated with administering the stamp program, (ii) habitat improvement grants to nonprofit organizations, and (iii) Department of Game and Inland Fisheries initiatives to protect, restore, enhance, and develop waterfowl habitat.
Patron - Lingamfelter

P SB1057

Title to abandoned vessel. Reduces from 12 months to 60 days the time that has to elapse before a landowner, his lessee, or his agent may begin the process to acquire title to any vessel abandoned on his land or the water immediately adjacent to his land. The current law establishes a procedure a property owner must follow that includes requirements for notification of the owner of the abandoned vessel in order to obtain title to such vessel.
Patron - Wagner

P SB1083

P SB1150

Hunting incidents causing severe physical injury; assistance, reporting. Requires any law-enforcement agency or emergency medical service provider that receives a report that a person engaged in hunting has suffered serious bodily injury or death to give notice to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Patron - Stolle

P SB1197

Game wardens. Requires the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to have at least one game warden whose primary responsibility is to patrol during the daylight hours of boating season on those lakes in Virginia that (i) are the size or larger than Smith Mountain Lake and (ii) have a boating accident record comparable to Smith Mountain Lake.
Patron - Newman

Failed

F HB2026

Personal flotation devices; penalty. Requires coaches of water sports to wear personal flotation devices while operating motorboats. Violation of this section is a Class 4 misdemeanor.
Patron - Amundson

F HB2505

Erection of stationary duck blinds. Gives the owners, their lessees or permittees of land west of Interstate Route 95 that is adjacent to the waters in Stafford, Prince William, and Fairfax, the exclusive privilege of erecting stationary blinds on their shoreline. Under this bill, which amends a 1928 Act of Assembly, they are also given the prior right to erect stationary blinds in the waters in front of their property. However, they forfeit the privilege and the prior right if they do not erect the blind by November 1. The 1928 law applies to land abutting waters in the three counties, as well as King George County, without distinction between locations east or west of I-95. This bill would increase the penalty to a Class 2 misdemeanor from the current fine of between $10 and $100 or confinement in jail for no more than a year, or both. The bill also repeals a 1942 Act of Assembly that prohibits hunting from floating blinds in the Counties of Caroline, King George, Essex, Westmoreland, and Richmond, and in several segments of the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers.
Patron - Shuler

F SB909

Personal flotation devices required for children; penalty. Requires all children six years of age or younger to wear a Type I, II, III, or Type V U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device on recreational vessels under 21 feet in length. The bill does not apply to a recreational vessel that is moored or anchored, or to children below deck or in an enclosed cabin. The bill defines "recreational vessel" as a vessel manufactured or operated for leisure or recreational purposes, or a vessel leased, rented or chartered for noncommercial use. "Recreational vessel" includes motorboats, sailboats, canoes, kayaks, rowboats, and any other vessel capable of being used for transportation on water, when the vessel is being used for other than commercial purposes. A boat operator who violates this provision is guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor which will be dismissed if the operator completes a boating safety education course. The bill has an effective date of January 1, 2006. This bill is identical to SB 1061.
Patron - Norment

F SB1061

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General Assembly>Division of Legislative Services>Publications>Session Summaries>2005>Game, Inland Fisheries and Boating

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