Solent oyster restoration plans awarded £75,000

It is hoped the Oyster restoration plans would boost jobs and improve the environment

A consortium working to restore oyster fishing in Hampshire has been awarded £75,000.

Fishing for oysters was banned on the Solent in 2013 after annual harvests dropped from 200 to 20 tonnes, and oysters failed to reproduce.

The project, led by Blue Marine Foundation, has been awarded the funds from groups including Marks and Spencer and The Roddick Foundation charity.

It will pay for a management plan which is due to be completed by February.

Tim Glover from the foundation said it will also help to fund further research, including which sites along the Solent would be best for oyster laying.

The plans come after a study by Lymington-based MacAlister Elliott and Partners and funded by MDL Marinas - the owner of seven marinas along the waterway - said several techniques could be used for oyster restoration.

'Healthy oyster population'

These include suspending bags of oysters under rafts in marinas to enhance the amount of oyster juveniles reaching the oyster beds.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Solent contained Europe's largest self-sustaining native oyster fishery, supporting more than 700 fishermen at its peak, the report said.

The consortium, which also includes the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, as well as fishermen and businesses, aims to restore "a healthy population of oysters" to the Solent by 2025, which it hopes would boost jobs and improve the environment.

A spokesman for The Roddick Foundation, said it was hoped its £25,000 contribution would help to "address the health of the water in the Solent as a whole".