Oysters from nursery 'thriving' in North Sea

Oysters which conservationists hope will improve water quality for years to come are "thriving" in the North Sea, they say.

About 1,000 mature native oysters and 15,000 juveniles, known as spat on shells, have been released at a nursery at South Tyneside in the final stages of a project.

For the past six years, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and nature charity Groundwork have been establishing self-sustaining, functioning oyster reefs in Sunderland and off the coast of Whitburn.

Project manager at ZSL Celine Gamble said: "We've done our final release, thousands of oysters are currently thriving in the conditions and hopefully we will soon see the biodiversity benefits they can bring."

The first stage of the project began in April 2021 when 4,000 European native oysters were introduced into Sunderland Marina.

In October 2025, about 20 oyster reef cubes containing 4,000 more oysters were released off the North East coast at Whitburn.

The oyster nursery is 1.5km (one mile) off the coast and is about the size of one and a half football pitches on the sea bed.

"It's been incredibly heartening to see the oysters now thriving on the reefs - at one point they used to fringe the coastline across the UK and it would be great to restore that," Gamble added.

The team used cubes as ballasts to secure the native oysters to the seabed, made from six tonnes of a robust, seawater-resistant and carbon-neutral alternative to concrete.

Conservation groups say oyster numbers in the UK have reduced by 95% since the 1800s due to habitat changes, over-harvesting, pollution and disease.

Marine ecology lead at Groundwork, Ashleigh Tinlin-Mackenzie said the molluscs were "so beneficial" for the coast.

"They filter 200 litres of water, cleaning our coastal seas into the future and they also create reefs which can become a habitat for other species like crabs and fish."

Divers have recently visited the site to see the progress of the habitats.

One of them, Dan McMullen from Project Baseline UK, said the oysters were "doing great" and attracting other marine life.

"There's an abundance of velvet swimming crabs, brown crabs, lobsters and also they've created a habitat for many juvenile fish," he said.

The project has entered its final year of funding having been supported by the Stronger Shores Partnership, led by South Tyneside Council, with funding from the Environment Department.

Oyster nurseries in both Sunderland Marina and off the Whitburn coast will continued to be monitored by the team to maximise the oysters' survival.

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