Agriculture, Chesapeake And Natural Resources

Wednesday, February 4, 2026·56m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee advanced roughly two dozen bills from three subcommittees, with most passing unanimously or near-unanimously. The most contested item was HB 1013, which would require the Marine Resources Commission to establish diamondback terrapin protection areas and mandate bycatch reduction devices on crab pots, drawing sharp opposition from the commercial crabbing industry and passing the full committee 14 to 8.

Key Actions

·HB 1013 – Diamondback Terrapin Protection Areas; Crab Pot Bycatch DevicesNo Vote

+ 13 more actions

Controversies

HB 1013 – Whether bycatch reduction devices on crab pots are justified and whether the bill presupposes commercial industry mandates

Delegate Bloxham argued that once a device is required on a particular gear type, it would be very hard to defend that the requirement is not statewide to everyone, and called the bill redundant of what CMAC is already doing. Delegate Tran countered that the bill as amended focuses only on recreational crab pots and does not presuppose any outcomes, with Line Amendment 4 asking VMRC, VIMS, and CMAC to determine only if additional strategies are needed.

+ 2 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“I'm past president of Virginia Seafood Council, the Lower Chesapeake Waterman's Association. And I was chairman of the Marine Products Board for a number of years. This subject first came up in front of the Marine Products Board. , at the turn of the century, we had to deal with an issue with the. Believe it or not, the. I'm trying to think of what the name of it is. It's an aquarium in California that would not certify Virginia crab meat because we didn't have turtle excluders in crab pots back then. And we addressed the issue then in 2001. It was taken up and a study was done by vims, and the results were fairly inconclusive. Other than most”
Pete Nixon — Nixon, a past president of the Virginia Seafood Council and 37-year member of the Crab Management Advisory Committee, testified in opposition to HB 1013, which would require bycatch reduction devices on crab pots in diamondback terrapin protection areas.

+ 2 more quotes

Votes

Report HB 1013 with amendments (or refer to Appropriations — motion unclear from transcript)Passed

Report HB 112 with substitutePassed

Report HB 1016 and refer to AppropriationsPassed

Report HB 70 with substitutePassed

Report HB 1110 with substitutePassed

Report HB 749Passed

Report HB 322Passed

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TranscriptPreview

It. Morning everybody. We're still waiting on a quorum because of folks in other committees. But we'd like to get started as quickly as possible. Message has gone out to members to come to the full committee and. But we'll go at ease right now for hopefully just five minutes. Thank you. Morning everyone. It's getting to that time when all of our folks are in other committees presenting bills and so it's hard to get everybody here. But thank you for being here. We have four bills that we have administrative actions on. First up is HB 387 from Delegate Krik. We'd like to take that bill by for the day. Moved. Oh, sorry. Let's get attendance first. I apologize. All right, we definitely have a quorum present. All right, so the first order of business is taking HB 387 different delegate Krisic by for the day. So we have a motion. All right, all those in favor say aye. All those opposed? All right, HB 387 is by for the day. The next two bills are. We have Delegate McLaughlin's bill that we're going to re refer to courts. Is that correct? No, that has to go to…

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