Native Americans created great mounds of leftover oyster shells, feeding heavily upon them for centuries without destroying the oyster bars in the Chesapeake Bay or the saltwater portions of Tidewater rivers. Early English settlers were also able to harvest oysters in great quantities without reducing the ability of the species to recover.
In 1686, Durand de Dauphine noted that his host had no difficulty obtaining several hundred pounds of oysters on short notice:
He had only to send one of his servants in one of the small boats & two hours after ebb-tide he brought it back full. These boats, made of a single tree hollowed in the middle, can hold as many as fourteen people & twenty-five hundredweight of merchandise.1
| Constitution of Virginia Article XI, Section 3. Natural oyster beds. The natural oyster beds, rocks, and shoals in the waters of the Commonwealth shall not be leased, rented, or sold but shall be held in trust for the benefit of the people of the Commonwealth, subject to such regulations and restriction as the General Assembly may prescribe, but the General Assembly may, from time to time, define and determine such natural beds, rocks, or shoals by surveys or otherwise. |
Now oysters have fallen upon hard times in Virginia, due to overharvesting, pollution, and disease.