Aquaculture is shaping up to be a big part of the future of the Chesapeake Bay, but it causes conflicts when commercial growers want to operate their businesses along shorelines that have largely seen only recreational use for many years.

Those conflicts have been playing out recently in Mathews County, where a commercial oyster grower seeks to place hundreds of floating oyster aquaculture cages off the shores of Gwynn’s Island.

With that in mind, the Mathews County Board of Supervisors held an information session last Wednesday so they could hear from an expert on oyster aquaculture—Dr. Standish Allen, director of the Aquaculture, Genetics and Breeding Technology Center at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. 

Allen, who happens to be a Mathews resident, has been studying aquaculture species more than 20 years, said supervisor Amy Dubois, who arranged the Aug. 22 session. She pointed out that the meeting would not be a policy discussion, but that it was import...