A plan to develop a ‘blueprint’ for native oyster reef restoration could see millions of native oysters (Ostrea edulis) returned to European waters.
Marine scientists, conservationists, administrators and oyster producers from across Europe are this week gathering for the second Native Oyster Restoration Alliance (NORA) conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, to develop the blueprint, which involves at least 15 European countries. The plan involves the oysters being returned to the seas around Sweden, France, Germany, England, Wales, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Croatia - where they were wiped out by overfishing as much as a century ago.
Dr Bill Sanderson, DEEP’s research director and associate professor of marine biodiversity at Heriot-Watt University, is chairing the NORA conference, taking place from 21-23 May and hosted by The Glenmorangie Company and partners Heriot-Watt University and the Marine Conservation Society. He said: “This is a game-changing moment for marine conservation. NORA’s pledge to bring back oyster reefs across Europe, opens the door to widespread restoration, with untold benefits for our seas.”
Restoration underway
The Glenmorangie Company and partners Heriot-Watt University and the Marine Conservation Society have now begun restoring extinct native oyster reefs to the protected sea by its distillery, through the Dornoch Environmental Enhancement Project (DEEP).
Forged in 2014, DEEP’s research-led approach has already seen 20,000 oysters returned to the Dornoch Firth. It aims to establish a self-sustaining reef of four million oysters by 2025. Established reefs would improve water quality and biodiversity through regaining reef-like three dimensional structures on the seafloor and act in tandem with Glenmorangie’s anaerobic digestion plant, purifying the by-products of distillation – an environmental first for a distillery.
