Wild Oys­ters

Zoo­log­i­cal Soci­ety London

Zoo­log­i­cal Soci­ety Lon­don (ZSL) will under­take active restora­tion of native oys­ter reefs in pri­or­i­ty sites in North East Eng­land to reverse the decline in this threat­ened marine habi­tat. This will facil­i­tate the recov­ery of asso­ci­at­ed bio­log­i­cal com­mu­ni­ties and ecosys­tem ser­vices. This coastal region is con­sid­ered by the Envi­ron­ment Agency as a key ​‘step­ping-stone’ for nation­al recov­ery of deplet­ed marine habi­tats in Eng­land. The impor­tance of this habi­tat restora­tion will be shared with local com­mu­ni­ties through edu­ca­tion­al out­reach activ­i­ties. We will also under­take an assess­ment of Euro­pean native oys­ter habi­tat against IUCN ecosys­tem Red List cri­te­ria to sup­port con­ser­va­tion and deci­sion mak­ing in coastal man­age­ment; to iden­ti­fy the con­tin­ued risks to this under­val­ued bio­di­ver­si­ty fea­ture and to allow solu­tions to be devel­oped and imple­ment­ed, afford­ing the vital habi­tat greater protection.

For more information visit: https://www.zsl.org