REEDVILLE — A new Virginia law designating 1,000 acres off the shores of the Northern Neck, the Middle Peninsula and Tangier Island for commercial shellfish farming is being challenged by members of the oyster farming industry and a state senator.
Sponsored by Del. Albert C. Pollard Jr., D-Lancaster, the law authorizes the creation of Aquaculture Opportunity Zones to promote the transition of watermen from the wild harvest of shellfish, whose populations in and around the Chesapeake Bay have suffered from pollution and disease.
But that effort could be undone by a bill introduced by state Sen. Ralph S. Northam, D-Norfolk, that seeks to remove the authority of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to create AOZs. It unanimously passed in the Senate on Thursday and is on the way to the House Agriculture Committee for consideration.
Matt Strickler, an aide to Northam, said Pollard's bill seemed like a good idea to a lot of people on the surface, but once it got through, people started looking at it more closely.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA).