Restored reef in river to provide a home for thousands of oysters

A REEF in a Hampshire river has been restored to the size of a football pitch in just two years to provide a home to 30,000 oysters as part of a project to return the molluscs to the south coast area.

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The Solent Seascape Project, led by the Blue Marine Foundation, started the process of creating the reef in 2023 by placing 468 tonnes of gravel and shell over a quarter of a hectare of the riverbed of the River Hamble.

The conservation charity then added 15,000 native oysters, before carrying out extra restoration work this year to double the size of the reef and add 15,000 more oysters.

The project aims to restart the Solent’s oyster population, which used to be part of a thriving industry but which mostly died out in the past 20 years because of pollution, invasive species, disease and over-extraction.