According to the news report a researcher found oysters in live after fifty years when they were declared extinct in the area, on the east coast of Scotland. Dr Liz Ashton, a research fellow at the Institute of Aquaculture in Stirling, made the discovery while investigating the possibility of restoring oysters to the river, and gives real hope that there could eventually be commercial farming of the shellfish.
It is informed that at its peak, the Firth of Forth oyster fishery produced over 30 million oysters a year, but that was in the early 19th century when Charles Darwin went out with the boats from Newhaven while studying in Edinburgh. Over-harvesting caused the fishery to collapse by 1920, and surveys of the Firth of Forth in 1957 reported that oysters were biologically extinct.
The report says that Dr Ashton found two oysters about 100 metres apart, visible at a very low tide on the south side of the river, but there is a likelihood there are more of them out there. She recalled that she was walking along the slippery stones by the water’s edge and then spotted what I thought could be an oyster. The tide was still going out so I had to wait a while, and confirm it was a specimen of native oyster.
David Donnan, Senior Fisheries Advisory Officer for Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) said the native oyster is part of SNH’s Species Action Framework, a five year programme of conservation work co-ordinated by SNH. One of the objectives of the framework is to attempt the restoration of oyster populations in areas where they were formerly abundant.
