An early, successful aquaculture experiment
There can be no denying that oyster aquaculture plays a big part in revival of oyster populations in local waters.
After all, mature oysters produce huge numbers of larvae which in turn attach to favorable structures or bottom and grow into new mature oysters.
With a nod to the devoted oyster growers in this region, we turn back the page to an experiment that took place nearly 75 years ago in the York River.
The Chesapeake Corporation in West Point, producer of pulp and paper at the head of the York, had been widely and erroneously blamed for several years for a nosedive in the York River oyster population. Having beaten off a lawsuit, Chesapeake decided to put its money behind its denials.
It invested about $50,000—huge money at that time—in an early aquaculture experiment. Mind you, this took place in 1940, 20 years before diseases began to ravage Chesapeake Bay oyster populations and to threaten an entire industry with extincti...