Bay Scallops Return to the Chesapeake

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Food & Drink

Photos courtesy of Rappahannock River Oysters unless otherwise noted.

One of the Northern Neck’s favorite feel-good success stories tells of the rapid rise of the aquaculture and restaurant businesses operating as the Rappahannock Oyster Company. With no real experience in the oyster industry and no apparent desire to learn it, cousins Ryan and Travis Croxton were confronted with an opportunity they fortunately didn’t refuse. The family’s long-held oyster leases were scheduled for renewal, and though there had been no harvesting activity for some years, the cousins accepted what amounted to a challenge to revive their grandfather’s once thriving business.

“Unfortunately, at the time, we didn’t know a lot about marine science or oyster culture, and very little about the industry,” said Ryan. “Our grandfather’s business had shuttered ten years prior, and with it went all of the infrastructure and knowhow. In hindsight, I think that not having those things freed us up a bit—I mean, what did we have to lose?”

Aquaculture was their approach, and since its somewhat serendipitous start in 2001, the company’s activities have contributed greatly to the return of Virginia as the top producer of oysters on the East Coast. In addition, the cousins opened several restaurants, initially to introduce diners to the quality of their oysters. The latest of the Croxtons’ ideas to become reality is the return of bay scallops to Chesapeake Bay.

At one time, the scallops were an important fishery in Virginia. But in 1933, a record-breaking hurricane hit the Eastern Seaboard. Extreme high tides flooded coastal cities, and a new inlet was carved into the Maryland coast. When the wind subsided and the flood waters receded, the Bay’s familiar eelgrass — the lifeline for so many marine organisms — was also gone. The loss of the eelgrass spelled the end for bay scallops in the Chesapeake.

That situation remained for decades until in 1999, researchers from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and the Nature Conservancy began a program aimed at restoring the eelgrass and improving water ecology as well. The experiment resulted in what has been described as the world’s most successful seagrass restoration. Unfortunately, a similar attempt at the time to restore the scallops did not produce the same desired result.

However, the idea had been planted. In 2014, Ryan Croxton wondered if the aquaculture that has worked so well with oysters could be used to farm the scallops as well. “Bay scallops are up and down the East Coast,” he said, “and it made perfect sense that we should have them too.”

Croxton located a hatchery in New York that would provide seed stock, but before any scallops could be placed in Virginia waters, the seed had to be tested and approved. “Thankfully, there’s a pretty strict process for bringing any shellfish across state lines. We worked with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) to ensure that a full pathology was done on the animals prior to bringing them in,” said Croxton. “The last thing we’d want to do is accidentally introduce anything to our waters.”

The testing process proved less than simple when the first sample of scallops died in the mail. To ensure a better outcome for the next sample, Croxton drove to Long Island to personally pick up the seed from the owner of the hatchery. The seed stock survived the driving trip back to Virginia, and eventually, a percentage of this sample was transplanted into the Bay. “We farm our scallops in rigid bag systems, so that the animals are free to swim in the bags unobstructed,” said Croxton. “They’re a bit more sensitive than oysters and require a lot more room. But otherwise they grow on the same grounds as our oysters. They do, however, require at least 25 ppt (parts per thousand) of salt in the water to survive, so that pretty much limits us to our oceanside farms.”

In 2017, Rappahannock Oyster Company served their first scallops at the Washington DC restaurant, thus far offering them both raw and grilled with a variety of different toppings. Said Croxton, “The response far exceeded our expectations!”

Besides being able to offer bay scallops in all their restaurants, Croxton notes that the farmed scallops will also increase the wild populations, just as oysters do. “What really matters is that we get scallops back into Bay waters, that they exist in the wild, and that one day my kids can taste them without having to depend solely on aquaculture.”

The scallops may be the newest choice on the menus, but it is a logical addition to the mindset that dominates all of Rappahannock Oyster Company’s activities — the concept of “good food, grown well.” Croxton explains: “Once we stepped into restaurants, we realized we were dealing with far more than just oysters. We’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to spotlight other producers of great food, and more importantly, food that’s grown or harvested with a conscience. It’s one thing to buy food from farmers located within 100 miles of your restaurant, but, in my opinion, it’s a far more important statement to only source product that you’re proud of, and I mean proud of how it’s grown as much as how it tastes.”

So many restaurants and a thriving wholesale business force the question of how to plan for future demand. “We’re largely capped by our willingness to plant more oysters,” says Croxton. “It takes two years to get an oyster to market size, and so it’s always a bit of guesswork in terms of what you think you’ll need in two years. We’ve been fairly conservative with our growth and only take on new customers when we know we have the volume to sell to them year round. Our restaurants are obviously a good customer, but they account for a relatively small portion of our volume.”

Restaurant patrons and local residents can only speculate about the next good idea to come from the innovative Croxtons. But sustainability will no doubt be part of their determination to continue to produce and offer good food, grown well.