A decade ago, the Blue Marine Foundation’s Dr Luke Helmer could easily have been found scrubbing oysters somewhere near Hamble le Rice on the UK’s Solent, the stretch of water between England mainland and the Isle of Wight and a marine habitat that was once rich in biodiversity and trade.

At this time, the native oyster restoration project – part of the Solent Seascape Project, a multi-partner, multi-habitat initiative across the region – was in its nascence while Helmer was studying for a Masters in Marine Biology. Ten years on and today, he may still be found scrubbing oysters along the Solent – but the stakes are somewhat higher.

Now a doctor in marine biology, Dr Luke Helmer is project lead of Blue Marine’s oyster initiative which, last week, set out to deploy more than 10,000 native oysters into the waters of the Solent in the latest phase of restoration. Its aim – to bring native oyster reefs back to the Solent.

This is the fifth outing of its kind over the last ten years. In 2023, the team at Blue Marine Foundation deployed just over 20,000 oysters across a quarter hectare along the River Hamble – a process it will be repeating just north of the spot in the coming months. Last week, Dr Helmer and the team deployed 10,545 just up from Warsash Mariner along the Solent.

In all, some 170 volunteers – both locals and those from further afield – joined the Blue Marine team for three days of scrubbing oysters, a process vital for removing dirt or keel worms to ensure that when they are redeployed, they are consistent with the native habitats here in the waters of the Solent.

“These oysters have originally come from the River Fal in Cornwall before being moved to Wales and then to us,” explained Dr Helmer. “So we have to do our best to make sure we are only deploying native oysters, which means scrubbing anything off, crunching off the keel worms, and dunking them in a chlorine bath for 15 minutes.”

It’s all part of the wider plan to bring the Solent back to the vitality it once enjoyed, before the negative impacts of anthropogenic activity took hold. Oyster populations in the Solent are at a fraction of what they once were, when its thriving ecosystem supported an entire industry. As a “seabed engineer”, oysters play a major role in supporting other marine life, too. It’s the aim of the project then to not only restore the Solent’s oyster reef to a former glory, but with it, revitalise a habitat that was once teeming with marine life.

“Each adult oyster can filter up to 200 litres of seawater a day. Back when this was a thriving ecosystem, that would have amounted to around 50 billion pints of seawater each day,” said Dr Helmer. “Not only that, but they can release over one million larvae, helping to clean the Solent, expand the population, and support a web of marine life.

“Restoring them is essential for biodiversity, for the health of our coastal waters, and for people who live and work near them.”

Crucial to the Solent’s health, previous decades have witnessed a decline in native oysters by over 95% due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. So bad is the situation that the native oyster reef ecosystem is considered ‘collapsed’ by the IUCN.

The restoration project here on the Solent is therefore part of a broader national and European-wide effort to reverse this collapse, and it’s one that is encompassing the knowledge, support, and efforts of marine scientists, NGOs, and coastal communities alike.

Luke Hart, who is currently studying for a degree in Marine Environmental Science, was one of the 170 volunteers to take part in the three-day scrubbing event last week.

“It’s important the public understands the gravity of the damage society is doing to our marine environment,” he told Oceanographic Magazine. “Projects like this need to grab the public’s attention and show them firsthand the damage we as a society have caused and continue to cause to our environment – whether that’s on land or at sea.”

The results of the project have – so far – been very encouraging. An “unsung hero of the sea” and the “kidneys of the ocean”, the vital role they play in filtering seawater and providing habitat has already worked wonders in helping to revive marine life in the Solent. In the project’s short timeframe so far, some 130 species have made their return to the area.

“Life is bouncing back really quickly,’ continued Dr Helmer. “Oysters are ecosystem engineers that modify the habitat to make it more suitable for other species, so we’re seeing the return of cuttlefish, bass, even endangered European eels. Local anglers have given us accounts of seeing more pollack returning to the area, too.

“This is an extremely encouraging moment. As a marine biologist, you want to be doing something that makes you feel like you’re making a difference. It’s nice to be able to do something on this scale.”

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