Not everyone is sold on the idea of a regional oyster hatchery to be built in the Northern Neck, a concept that could produce revenue and jobs for the area if it works.

During informational meetings held throughout the area last week, some residents voiced questions about the $1 million project that could take years to complete.

"Have you chosen an operating business structure?" asked JC Berger during the Feb. 1 meeting held in Warsaw. Director of the Northern Neck District Planning Commission, Jerry Davis, fielded questions. He said the plan is to include a "private-public partnership, but what shape will be hammered out by the feasibility study."

The study could begin soon if funds are secured through the NNPDC and local oyster houses. Davis said grant money awarded by Virginia Housing and Urban Development coffers and federal Department of Commerce officials could kick start the campaign to revitalize the oyster industry in the ‘Neck, a goal of the NNPDC.

He said about a year ago the need for a local oyster hatchery was discovered by area leaders through the NNPDC and economic partnership it’s part of.

Since then, the group has moved towards but not into the formal study to consider the feasibility of the plan, which would include a facility being built on land probably donated by area governments, according to Davis.

A.J. Erksine is the aquaculture manager for Cowart Seafood Corporation and the Bevans Oyster Company. He accompanied Davis to the meetings last week and answered audience members’ questions about the logistics and science behind producing baby, or seed, oysters.

"The goal is to produce larvae and seed," he said. "Research is important and may be managed [at the facility] later."

He said the facility would be about the size of a "mini-Wal-Mart" and would probably need a few acres of waterfront property. He said salinity levels and elevation of the land would dictate the best fit for a hatchery as water is pumped through underwater cages where baby oysters are coddled and fed until ready to be distributed.

Davis and Erksine said that just finding out if the project can work will take at least six months. Construction could take more than a year, meaning the first generation of oysters could be three years in coming.

But if it works, such a facility could put out 3-5 million larvae and 50-100,000 seed oysters annually. Currently, local oyster businesses have to purchase baby bivalves from out of state hatcheries for success. There is only one commercial scale hatchery in Virginia, according to Erksine, although a Lancaster County hatchery was discovered during the Jan. 29 meeting there. There are hatcheries that could produce seed oysters but mainly do business in baby clams, reportedly.

And even then, according to Lake Cowart of Cowart Seafood, success is limited, which explains why three of the area’s largest companies in the industry are on board.

"Our interest is to provide seed for our own needs," Cowart said. "Our intention is to provide seed for other uses and people."

He said seed bought between 2005 and 2006 from Maine "lived pretty well" but that seed purchased previously from a lower peninsula hatchery struggled to survive in the salinity levels of the Coan and Yeocomico Rivers.

"We need local seed," Cowart said.

Other watermen of the area want their say and share of the idea.

Ken Smith of Heathsville is vice president of a local watermen’s association. He reiterated that his group is in favor of "a nursery in the Northern Neck," but added that they have "legitimate concerns about what it will do to oystermen."

He said they are afraid that the hundreds of new jobs the hatchery could bring would be given to temporary or migrant workers employed by the larger corporations, rather than the average oystermen working their own operations.

"We want to see someone who doesn’t have a monetary interest in it [on the management team]," Smith said. "These three companies control 1,000s of acres of oyster bottom."

Davis agreed and offered to include Smith on the team, which already includes representatives from the Virginia Institute for Marine Science and former secretary of natural resources Tayloe Murphy, who was at the Warsaw meeting. Also among the nearly 20 people attending the Warsaw meeting were supervisors Randy Packett and Courtney Sisson and county administrator Bill Duncanson.

"This is a transparent process," Erksine reiterated, adding that the seed could be equally spread along sanctuary and public grounds underwater.

"But it’s not going to be free," he added, saying that the seed can’t be given away.

Meanwhile, the process to secure the grant funding is the NNPDC’s top project right now, according to Davis.

"I think we’re very close to getting approval from both agencies to go ahead with the formal study," he said.

Money for the feasibility study is expected to come through the grants, which Davis is confident will be awarded.

"Funding sources will typically fund these kinds of projects," he said. "The oyster industry is a fraction of what it used to be. They’re interested because of the positive economic and environmental impacts."

Money for the construction, or phase two, of the hatchery could come from the companies backing the project, including Bevans, Cowart and Kellum seafood companies. Money from the grants, if awarded, could also be used towards building.

Where to put such a business is still undetermined.

"We’re assuming we can get a sight," Davis said, later saying that he thinks the land could "come in as a local match."

What sort of impact such an endeavor is expected to make on an ailing industry is unclear.

"Over harvesting took place about 100 years ago," Smith explained. "Decline came with disease. The oysterman is not the culprit, but the victim."

He wanted to know what measure of revitalization will be used to guide the project, whether it would be the boom of the 1800s, the plateau of the 1930s or the rates seen in the years "pre-durmo."

It was unclear what measure of success the project would be guided by.