Oysters have been gone for a long time in the famed harbor of Belfast where the Titanic was constructed. Now, a project on nursery installation directed at boosting water quality and marine life has led them to return.
Oyster Disappearance in Belfast
The narrow Belfast Lough channel used to house huge reefs of oysters until the early 1900s. The beds of oysters were abundant across the seas in Europe. Since the Stone Age, humans have been gathering these oysters.
However, due to pollution, disease, and overfishing, the population of oysters gradually declined.
David Smyth, the marine conservation manager of the Ulster Wildlife group, explains that they are trying to bring back a habitat that was lost. The estimates of the group show that populations of oysters have declined by a whopping 95% since the 1900s. Native oyster reefs are also now one of Europe's most threatened habitats.
Rehabilitating Reefs
Just last month, a nursery with around 700 mollusks that were transported from Scotland via van and examined for diseases was lowered down into Belfast Lough. This was done in more than a dozen cages filled with shelves.
Smyth explains that the nursery should eventually produce a coral reef's local equivalent.
When they were done hoisting the oyster habitats, the group carefully removed the animals and kept them on the pier for them to be measured and weighed.
While holding two aloft, Smyth explained that oyster pairs that were already conjoined were in the early stages of coral reef formation. He further brings up the thought of imaging 100,000 of these oysters conjoined together, which is what they were after. From them, up to millions of larvae could settle on the seabed and around the shore.
Smyth adds that, similar to how a coral reef works, when the animals start forming beds, tiny fish and crustaceans will start living and feeding in the area. Smyth also notes that oysters are great water filters that have the capacity to filter more than 200 liters of seawater each day.
However, the rehabilitation efforts see challenges, especially as passenger ferries and cargo ships move in and out of the docks that are quite near. Smyth notes that it will be hard for the larvae to settle and grow into adults if they get exposed to pollutants in the industry.
Nevertheless, the nursery animals have been observed to impressively perform so far. Among the 700 installed oysters, there have only been two recorded mortalities.
While similar projects are underway across Europe, the nursery in Belfast is directed at replicating the efforts in New York that started a year ago. These efforts began with the aim of restoring millions of oysters.
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