Letter: Clam grounds restricted on questionable research
It is reasonable to expect a thoroughly scrupulous presentation of the facts by a scientist who is requesting that policy be set in anticipation of enforcing legislation. Lecturing VMRC, Dr. Robert Orth, a VIMS PhD, now a candidate for Gloucester supervisor, supported his request for regulations against clam growers by saying underwater grasses have an economic value of $7,700 per acre per year. The contents of his letter were circulated widely by local newspapers.
Questioning the scientific basis for that claim, I directed a researcher to engage Dr. Orth via e-mail. We learned that he apparently did not do the research to produce that figure. Nor had he tried to verify the other person’s research, but had simply quoted the figure by dividing the hectares by 2.47. (There are 2.47 acres per hectare.) When my researcher asked that person for the study and data, no reply was received. Dr. Orth got his way; restrictive resolution was adopted and then found its way into Code, with the blessing of local legislators. It so happens the regulation achieved its goal by violating a well known provision of the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; i.e., taking without due process or just compensation. An attorney knowledgeable in that part of the law calls it "inverse taking!"
You’d think someone in Virginia’s legal establishment would have reviewed the issue and discovered the fault, or someone on VMRC’s sitting commission, or some lease holder with an interest would have raised the issue. Nobody did. Well, good for Dr. Orth and congratulations—no challenge. And there the matter rests, more or less.
George B. DeMarco