Shellfishing and consumption of shellfish from Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island’s coastal salt ponds as been an important part of Rhode Island’s history. During the early Colonial period, extensive oyster reefs were harvested for the consumption of the meats, but the oyster shells had higher value as a raw material for the manufacture of lime for use in masonry mortar. Limestone, a traditional raw material for lime kilns, was not readily available in southern New England and surely contributed to the value of oyster shell as a source of calcium carbonate.

All of the early legislation by both Rhode Island’s Colonial Assembly and the post-Revolution General Assembly to regulate the oyster fishery led to the state issuing the first exclusive private harvest grants of oyster banks in Narragansett Bay, which forbade the general public from “molesting or disturbing [the grantee] in his enjoyment of the provisions of his charter.” Despite the granting of the exclusive rights to cultivate oysters on their grant areas, the grantees were not charged a lease fee for their grants. The lack of lease fees and the exclusion of the public from harvesting in the grant areas generated considerable controversy among fishermen. At this time—prior to the adoption Rhode Island’s 1843 constitution—the colonial King Charles Charter of 1646 was considered the unofficial constitution of Rhode Island.

Despite a passage in the charter stating that marine fisheries were to be treated as a common property resource, the fishermen took this as evidence that the General Assembly had no right to make grants of commonly held fishing grounds or to regulate the fisheries. However, the common property principle and the states’ rights to manage their resources were reinforced by the 1842 U.S. Supreme Court.

In light of the controversy surrounding the early aquaculture leases and the U.S. Supreme Court decision, the General Assembly passed the Oyster Act of 1844, which was Rhode Island’s first aquaculture law. The act established a system of leasing tracts of submerged land for the purpose of culturing oysters, as well as setting up a board of three shellfishery commissioners—who served without salary—and a fee structure for the leases. The fee structure ranged from a high of $10 per acre per year to a low of $1 per acre per year for larger, multiple-acre leases. The first year of leasing generated $60 in lease fees.

Despite the clarity of legislative intent of the 1844 Oyster Act to enhance oyster production and to establish a clear set of leasing protocols, the newly established Rhode Island Shellfisheries Commission got off to a rocky start. The fishermen on the public oyster grounds became openly rebellious. Stealing oysters from lease sites became rampant and arrests were made, leading to a number of court cases in the 1850s that upheld the power of the General Assembly to grant the leases. By 1855, the General Assembly authorized the use of lease fees for the purchase of a patrol boat to watch the leases, but this also proved unsuccessful, as those willing to lease new grounds were few, and lease income declined. Further laws passed in the 1850s aimed at improving the climate for shellfish aquaculture. An 1852 statute required all shell to be returned to beds to serve as setting substrate for oysters, and an 1854 statute allowed private aquaculture lessees to harvest 5 bushels of oysters per day from public beds to serve to seed the leased farms. Despite these legislative actions, by the end of the decade lease fees declined to zero, prompting the General Assembly to require a report from the commissioners as to the reasons. That report, made in 1859, referenced the poaching problems.

Excerpt from: Rice, Michael A. A History of Oyster Aquaculture in Rhode Island. Aquaculture in Rhode Island: 2006 Yearly Status Report by the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council.

http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/41N/vol4no2/12_rice.pdf accessed on August 12, 2009.