Dr Luke Helmer, Blue Marine Foundation’s (BLUE) Restoration Science Officer, has spent the past year creating the first native oyster restoration reef on the Solent. This marks both a substantial milestone for the project, which began in 2015, and a leap forward for an iconic species that has all but disappeared in the area. BLUE is working alongside wider UK & Ireland and European networks to restore the native oyster in its natural range.

Oysters can provide a huge number of benefits to nature and communities; from their ability to filter vast quantities of water a day, to supporting hundreds of species across their natural range, these unassuming creatures are certainly superheroes of the seas. Their amazing capabilities are also what make the dramatic decline of many oyster species around the world even more heart-breaking: humans have essentially removed the kidneys from the ocean and are now paying the price.

The Blue Marine Foundation have been working with native oysters for several years and knew that scaling up our operation was inevitable. Having seen first-hand how reefs are built from shell and gravel in the US and Australia, Dr Luke Helmer knew that this was going to be no mean feat. They were lucky to have a fantastic working group of stakeholders in the Solent, so were confident that it was possible to come together and recreate this on the south coast of the UK.

Site selection, licence application and organisation for creating a reef in one of the busiest waterways in the UK certainly caused a few headaches, but after a long arduous process everything fell into place and they had sign-off from all the people that was required.

The reef in Langstone Harbour is the first in what its hoped will become a network of reefs across the Solent. More oysters will need to be added over time, but hopefully within the next few years we will start to see natural settlement, and the populations will become self-sustaining.

The restoration and recovery of the European native oyster is not going to be quick. It is not going to be easy and it is not going to plain sailing. But the team in the Solent, and others across Europe, are in it for the long run.

To read Dr Luke Helmer's blog in full please click here.

For further details please see: Solent Oyster Restoration Project Overview