European flat oysters reintroduced to U.K. waters after being extinct since 19th century

TORONTO -- In a project aiming to bring a type of oyster back from the brink of extinction in British waters, thousands are being reintroduced to local waters for the first time since the 19th century.

The initiative is called the Wild Oyster Project, and it plans to return thousands of European flat oysters to the south of the United Kingdom's coastline in hopes of repopulating the overfished marinas.

“The oysters will breed inside these structures and they will release millions and billions of oyster larvae,” Ashleigh Tinlin-Mackenzie from the Wild Oysters Project told CTV National News.

The areas where the oysters are released will be closed to fishing to allow the species to thrive.

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In an attempt to re-populate the native oysters that once flourished in the area during the 18th and 19th century, the molluscs are expected to produce millions of oyster larvae in the project’s first year.

“They are the product of the north sea and they are what we are here. They are the environment that they come from,” said Christopher Sutherland, a farmer at Lindisfarne Oysters, an oyster farm based on the northeastern coastline of the U.K.

The European flat oyster is almost extinct in many areas across Europe, including in the Solent, a strait in the U.K., where they have declined by nearly 95 per cent since the 1800s due to overfishing and coastal pollution.

Experts say oysters play a vital role in the marine ecosystem and underwater biodiversity.

Oysters are considered “ocean superheroes” because they filter up to 200 litres of ocean water every day and remove contaminants.

“The aim is that these larvae will travel out to sea and find the best place for them to survive, they'll settle to the seabed and they'll create these really diverse reefs," Tinlin-Mackenzie said.

The organization says the ultimate goal of the project is to clean coastal waters across the U.K. and help experts better understand the ecology and biodiversity of the oyster species.

“Oyster reefs offshore have the ability to slow wave action and to also lock sediment in place. That will have huge benefits for people living on land, through preventing coastal erosion and also reducing the risk of flooding,” said Zahra Ravenscroft, a senior marine officer at Environment Agency.

The project currently has 94 of 141 planned underwater habitats installed across Wales and England.