The Commonwealth of Virginia has a long history of support for shellfish culture to include both oysters and clams (and historically scallops) since the 1800's. State-owned bottomlands are held in trust for the benefit of the citizens of the Commonwealth. In the late 1800's the natural oyster beds were mapped and they were protected by the state constitution to be held for public use. Other bottomlands not considered to be natural shellfish beds were then made available for leasing for private shellfish production. Such leases were originally used primarily for seed production and/or were enhanced with shell to make them commercially viable for shellfish harvest. This served to provide large areas where wild caught oysters could be grown and sold for shucking purposes. These leases were managed by the Virginia Commission of Fisheries during much of the 1900's. The Commission of Fisheries was eventually re-named the Virginia Marine Resources Commission when authority was granted to the agency for habitat management permitting over state-owned subaqueous bottomlands.
In the late 1980's the first attempts to produce shellfish using more intensive containerized methods occurred. Many of these initial attempts were not considered successful for a variety of reasons. However, by the 2000's, aided by some technological gear improvements and an increase in the availability to obtain triploid (sterile) oysters that reached market size in less then two years, renewed interest in such containerized aquaculture methods began to be implemented successfully. Many traditional use shellfish bottom leases were converted to more intensive containerized and/or spat on shell use methods. Additionally, the wild clam industry was also transitioning to more intensive planting of aquaculture clams (using protective netting) on leases where salinity and bottom conditions are more favorable for clams than for osyters.
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission Engineering/Surveying Department is responsible for managing the shellfish leasing program for the Commission. The Habitat Management Division ( under which the Engineering/Surveying Department is located) also is responsible for issuing permits for any aquaculture activity requests over or upon state-owned tidal bottomlands.
Currently, the Engineering/Surveying Department oversees the leasing of 133,722 acres of bottomlands under 5,501 individual leases. The Habitat Management Division has issued dozens of aquaculture related permits beginning in the 1990's.