This story was reported and written by VPM News.
Each year, lawmakers, lobbyists, legislative staff and even the governor take a short respite from the breakneck pace of the General Assembly to celebrate progress on Chesapeake Bay restoration and enjoy a briny snack of oysters on Capitol Square in Richmond.
This year, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation hosted an event pairing oyster-based advocacy with a bona fide rivalry on par with Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi.
A rivalry … and a rigging?
Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Or, in this case, sore is the back that wears the champion’s belt.
“They're like, ‘Oh, you're winning.’ I was like, ‘Well, I need a belt,’” said Del. Michael Webert (R–Culpeper) with his homemade WWE-style belt slung over his shoulder. The Republican was headed down the General Assembly elevator to defend his title.
Webert is the reigning champion of the lawmakers’ oyster-eating competition — though the criteria for this title is unclear. He’s got the swagger to make it believable.
“I'm the oyster-eating champion,” Webert told a gathering crowd on a Wednesday morning. “I'm about to lose, though.”
That’s not a lack of confidence. In fact, he is working to lose this year's oyster-eating contest in favor of the competition, whom he identified when he entered Capitol Square.
“Where’s Shelly? SHELLY!!!” the cattleman roared.
Del. Shelly Simonds (D–Newport News) is backed by a posse wearing custom T-shirts showing her face superimposed on a shell.
Though Webert didn’t say why he was throwing the competition, Simonds reckons her status as prime challenger is due to her tenacity, her choice to stay for the long haul. She said this year, the competition isn’t about eating the fastest or the most oysters. It's about who can eat the longest.
“We want this to not just be about eating the most oysters,” Simonds said. “We want to enjoy Virginia oysters the most. More than anyone.”
She’s also taking her own tasting notes on the oysters. Briny, mid-size and umami-packed — the ones from the Bay tend to be saltier. In the rivers, they’re sweeter.
“This one is in the running for the most beautiful oyster,” Simonds said, displaying a Happy Oyster produced by Heathsville’s Sapidus Farms.
Simonds called it a classic for its gray, slightly pearlescent shell.
Her technique? She pinched an oyster between two fingers and took it down about as fast as the growers can shuck them. And though she generally enjoys mignonette sauce — a vinegary, onion-y condiment — she went for undiluted oyster flavor.
Meanwhile, Webert slurped them down and tossed shells underneath a makeshift oyster bar.
“[Oysters are] something that it doesn't matter what party you're from, you know, we all get behind it, and Virginia is doing its part,” Webert said.
Shellfish success and goals unmet
Virginia has a long history of oyster management. Recent efforts were buoyed by a desire to bring back a once-thriving industry that collapsed along with populations of the mollusks back when disease, warming waters, pollution and overfishing converged in the ’80s.
“[There are] things that both parties and everybody that participates can agree on, and that's certainly, definitely one of them. That's why we eat oysters, right?” Webert asked.
“Yeah, that's why we're here,” Simonds replied. “In bipartisan fashion, eating the oysters.”
CBF throws the oyster-eating event every year, in part, to advocate for more policies and money to protect the watershed at large.
Oyster harvests have rebounded since that 1980s-era collapse, thanks to extensive efforts to develop reefs, spread baby oysters throughout the watershed and generally improve water quality. The efforts were helped by the fact that oysters are filter feeders — they actively improve water quality by removing algae.
“These are six growers who are all part of a multimillion-dollar industry here in Virginia that’s bringing in a ton of money and cleaning water at the same time,” said Jay Ford, the foundation’s Virginia policy manager, pointing to the long shucking table.
He said Virginia’s on track to meet its oyster restoration goals under the multistate and federal Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement deadline this year.
“But in other areas, we still have a lot of work to do,” Ford added.
Members of that agreement have acknowledged they won’t meet broader cleanup goals and are working this year to re-evaluate them. Virginia is off-track on commitments to reduce chemical and sediment pollution from agriculture, sewage, and urban and suburban runoff.
Webert’s district covers the Rappahannock River’s headwaters. There, Bay restoration involves low-cost measures like fencing cattle out of streams and planting grasses on riverbanks. Both are methods to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from livestock, fertilizers and pesticides.
Those chemicals run into streams, causing algal blooms that choke out aquatic life and contribute to the “dead zone” — a swath of the Chesapeake that doesn’t have enough oxygen to support life in summer months.
The Agricultural Best Management Practice Cost-Share program, administered by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, has received significant funding over the past several years. Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposed adding $17 million to the grant fund in his budget amendments. The program helps farmers cover the costs of practices like fencing.
Simonds has proposed setting up a policy task force to create plans that would protect and restore wetlands. The habitats, including those in her district, are chock full of plant and animal life — grasses, rodents, shellfish and more.
“These wetlands are rapidly disappearing,” Simonds said in a January hearing. The worst part about this is we don’t really know how much we’re losing, where it’s disappearing or how fast.”
Wetlands are kind of like kidneys (or sponges, if you like): Plant life soaks up the stuff left behind in our cities and farms, protecting other portions of the Chesapeake Bay. And when the weather gets nasty, they protect us by drinking up floodwaters.
Simonds’ heavily-urbanized district is indicative of another area Virginia needs to improve on to meet Bay goals: Municipal stormwater systems are stressed by growing populations and increasingly torrential downpours, caused in part by climate change.
Ford said the Chesapeake Bay Foundation supports budget amendments this year that would increase grant funding for cities to improve water infrastructure. The Senate is proposing $40 million be deposited into the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund; the House is proposing $50 million, along with $6 million directly to the city of Portsmouth.
“There’s been a lot of conversation about ways we can enhance these efforts in the years ahead, and one is going to be more oysters in the water,” Ford said.
There’s a lot to be done — and Ford hopes events like the oyster-eating contest can help garner support for the broad range of policies that would go toward cleaning up the Bay watershed.
But before Webert and Simonds can get back to debating how best to meet restoration goals, a champion must be crowned.
“The new winner — she’s small, she’s mighty … SHELLY!” Webert declared.
This year, the belt is coming home to Newport News.
This story was produced as part of the VPM News series Curious Commonwealth.
Copyright 2025 VPM
