Representatives from academia, state government, and the shellfish-farming community joined on April 29 to dedicate the new Acuff Center for Aquaculture at the College of William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
“The Acuff Center will soon be populated with scientists and millions of baby oysters,” said Dr. Bill Walton, Acuff Professor of Marine Science and coordinator of the Shellfish Aquaculture Program at VIMS, during the dedication ceremony. “This beautiful new state-of-the-art facility will allow VIMS to help Virginia’s aquaculture industry solve problems and seize opportunities as well as position VIMS as a global leader in the field of shellfish aquaculture science.”
The center’s name honors A. Marshall Acuff Jr., as well as his late father. Acuff, a managing director at Silvercrest Asset Management LLC in Richmond, has been involved with VIMS for many decades.
A founding member and past president of the VIMS Foundation Board, he also chaired VIMS’s “For the Bold” campaign committee. In 2017, Acuff made a substantial commitment to advance shellfish aquaculture research at VIMS through a named professorship, endowed scholar program and support for the now eponymous shellfish hatchery. Acuff’s father was an oyster harvester on the Eastern Shore.
Virginia is the leading producer of hatchery-based shellfish on the East Coast. Cultured shellfish contribute more than $100 million to the commonwealth’s economy each year while helping to filter Chesapeake Bay waters.
The aquaculture center was purpose-built to advance the science of farming shellfish. The 22,000-square-foot facility houses a shellfish research hatchery designed to accommodate the operation of VIMS’s Aquaculture Genetics and Breeding Technology Center, plus several other research, education and advisory teams collaborating within the institute’s recently established Shellfish Aquaculture Program.
The $22.7 million Acuff facility was designed by architects at Ellenzweig and Quinn Evans and built by Kjellstrom & Lee Construction of Richmond. Funding came from the Commonwealth of Virginia.