European researchers try to revive Europe’s native oyster, that over the past century has change into nearly extinct.
Learn the unique French article right here.
The European flat oyster was all over the place: Till the center of the twentieth century, Ostrea edulis was fished, farmed and eaten from the North Sea to the Adriatic, from Norway to Croatia.
Overfishing, however largely the arrival of the 2 parasites Marteilia and Bonamia within the Nineteen Seventies and 80s, which reached Europe via commerce globalisation, decimated the populations. Of this distinctive species native to the continent, solely a handful of untamed websites stay at this time.
In France, a small variety of oyster farms nonetheless exist, primarily within the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, an space barely extra protected against illness. The manufacturing of flat oysters doesn’t exceed 1,000 tonnes per 12 months, whereas hole oysters produce round 80,000 tonnes.
The widespread oyster we eat essentially the most at this time is a species from Japan referred to as Crassostrea gigas, which is far hardier than its European cousin.
European Native Oyster Restoration Alliance
In 2017, 100 or so European scientists and managers joined forces to assist the flat oyster reclaim the coast, by creating the Native Oyster Restoration Alliance (NORA).
Since then, tasks have been arrange throughout a dozen member states.
In France, the Comité Régional Conchylicole de Bretagne Nord (CRCBN) is making ready the return of the Ostrea edulis. After figuring out the final pure beds and finishing up a number of organic and ecological research on the species and its surroundings, the primary experiments to recolonise the marine surroundings started in Finistere, in western Brittany.
They produce oyster “households” in tanks fastened on synthetic reefs made from biomaterial helps, earlier than inserting them at sea on wild beds.
The mission, referred to as ARCHE, which is 80% funded by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), was launched in 2018 and will probably be accomplished in March 2023.
“A few of the reefs have been within the water for 2 years, and we’re happy, optimistic for the longer term,” Benoît Salaun, director of CRCBN, instructed EURACTIV France, including that because it takes three years for a oyster to totally develop, the mission is just not completed and experiences are but to be made.
To keep away from a brand new wave of contamination and make large-scale farming potential once more, essentially the most parasite-resistant shellfish have been chosen upfront.
However, some questions stay unanswered. Will the implantation within the open sea work, regardless of an surroundings topic to numerous hostile components? Will these oysters handle to breed with their wild kin and move on their resistance?
In Belgium, the UNITED 2020 mission additionally launched into this kind of restoration, notably within the wind farms of the North Sea.
A little bit additional north, across the Heligoland archipelago, Germany is designing an oyster hatchery for restocking broodstock as a part of the PROCEED mission (2018-2024).
Benoît Salaun careworn the widespread European will to revive the flat oysters.
“We’re engaged on enhancing the strains, on choice, particularly with the Wegener Institute in Germany. We’re even going so far as exchanging households of oysters, to have extra range.”
Hazelnut style
One other of NORA’s targets is to revive marine habitats and the whole ecosystem. The oyster is an ‘engineering’ species, which creates pure reefs that appeal to wealthy biodiversity and lure carbon. It additionally filters water, which permits algae to raised take up gentle.
For professionals, the event of the flat oyster will open up the market and scale back the well being dangers related to monocultures.
Though France is the principle producer and shopper of flat oysters, another member states are selling their very own farms, corresponding to Eire, with Galway’s flat oysters, or the Ston oysters from Croatia.
Can a prodigal return of Ostrea edulis be anticipated within the subsequent years?
“If we attain 10%, it would already be a hit,” stated Benoît Salaun. “However it’s the shopper who will resolve.”
Whether or not the very iodized style with a touch of hazelnut will delight the European palate stays to be seen. The worth can even be twice as excessive as that of the hole oysters, at between €10-15 per dozen.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
