The “rock,” a term for an oyster bed, has been closed for over a decade, according to the spokesman for the Virginia Marine Resource Commission (VMRC), John Bull.

Third-generation waterman Michael Croxton of Kilmarnock and his wife, Tammy, said they have been pulling up 11 to 12 bushels of market-size oysters a day, which they are selling for $30 a bushel to local distributors.

Bull said the Rappahannock River has six public oyster harvest areas that were opened in 2007 on a rotational basis, with two areas opened for a month each per year. He said the rotational harvest is part of a long-term experiment to study whether native oysters can develop a disease resistant strain on their own through selective evolution.

“The entire Rappahannock River was closed to harvesting for ten years,” said Bull. “Two years ago it was opened for rotational harvests. This particular area has not been mined for over a decade. The river was closed to see what would happen if the oysters were left alone. Would they develop a disease resistant strain? It takes a long time to gather the results.

“I’ve heard there are some nice oysters being caught,” Bull said.