Sourcing suitable oysters for oyster restoration projects is an on-going problem for many oyster restoration projects throughout Europe. There are often mis-matches between funding timelines and production timeline, and of course also constraints placed on sourcing by considerations including genetics, invasive species distribution, and disease status.
The Production Working Group aims to find a collaborative solution to, or joint understanding of the barriers in sourcing oysters for restoration efforts.
Current ongoing and planned activities include:
- An initiative lead by IVL and connected to both the H2020 project AquaVitae (grant agreement no. 818173) and NORA to develop and validate a spatting pond protocol.
More: Call for collaborators to test spatting pond protocol - Biosecurity guidelines for operating oyster hatcheries for the oyster restoration market (as part of the Biosecurity Working Group)
More: NORA and UK-Ireland Native Oyster Network develop Best Practice guidelines for biosecurity in European oyster restoration projects
If you have ideas as to further projects which would benefit from pan-European collaboration, or if you would like to be involved with any of the ongoing efforts, please contact the secretariat: secretariat@noraeurope.eu