Abstract
Efforts to restore the native oyster Ostrea edulis and its associated habitats are gaining momentum across Europe. Several projects are currently running or being planned. To maximize the success of these, it is crucial to draw on existing knowledge and experience in order to design, plan and implement restoration activities in a sustainable and constructive approach. For the development of best practice recommendations and to promote multidimensional knowledge and technology exchange, the Native Oyster Restoration Alliance (NORA) was formed by partners from science, technology, nature conservation, consultancies, commercial producers and policy-makers. The NORA network will enhance scientific and practical progress in flat oyster restoration, such as in project planning and permitting, seed oyster production, disease management and monitoring. It also focuses on joint funding opportunities and the potential development of national and international regulatory frameworks. The main motivation behind NORA is to facilitate the restoration of native oyster habitat within its historic biogeographic range in the North Sea and other European seas along with the associated ecosystem services; services such as enhancing biodiversity, including enhanced fish stocks, nutrient cycling and sediment stabilization. NORA members agreed on a set of joint recommendations and strongly advise that any restoration measure should respect and apply these recommendations: The Berlin Oyster Recommendation is presented here. It will help guide the development of the field by developing and applying best practice accordingly. NORA also aims to combine the outreach activities of local projects for improved community support and awareness and to provide educational material to increase knowledge of the key ecological role of this species and increase awareness among regulators, permit providers and stakeholders. A synthesis of O. edulis restoration efforts in Europe is provided and underlines the general significance in the field.
Highlights
The native European Oyster Ostrea edulis once covered vast areas of the open North Sea and other European coastal waters
Bottom trawling for other target species remains a barrier to regenerating structured habitat such as oyster beds or reefs because shellfish habitats are vulnerable to physical impact (Cook et al, 2013)
Current experimental research shows that Ostrea edulis is capable of forming biogenic reef structures through shell accretions (Christianen et al, 2018; Merk et al, 2019) and underlines the ecological importance of oysters as biogenic habitat builders
Summary
The native European Oyster Ostrea edulis once covered vast areas of the open North Sea and other European coastal waters. Natural oyster beds and reefs have vanished or are in a degraded state, with limited ecological function, throughout Europe (Thurstan et al, 2013) This status was reached before the end of the 19th century and there is a shifted baseline (Pauly, 1995; Alleway and Connell, 2015; Pogoda, 2019) leading to a debate about the extent to which native oysters formed reefs. For the relatively new field of restoring native flat oyster reefs in Europe, the development of best practice and decision-making tools is of fundamental importance (Metzger et al, 2017) Against this background, partners from science, technology, nature conservation, consultancies, commercial producers and policy-makers founded the Native Oyster Restoration Alliance (NORA) and developed the initial Berlin Oyster Recommendation, which is presented here:
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