Ten priority questions for increasing the consistency and success in hatchery production of the European flat oyster for habitat restoration

The European flat oyster, Ostrea edulis, once formed extensive reef habitats throughout European seas and estuaries. These reefs are now largely functionally extinct, yet interest and support for their restoration is rapidly growing. A major bottleneck to scaling up oyster reef restoration is the lack of available oysters to supply the growing demand. This study aimed to identify the ten questions which, if answered, would increase the consistency and success in hatchery production of O. edulis for habitat restoration. Candidate questions were submitted by representatives from twelve commercial and research hatcheries across Europe. The list of 98 candidate questions were collaboratively discussed by experts from nine research hatcheries across eight countries in Europe, to identify the top ten questions via an iterative and open process. Questions were grouped into the following themes: Conditioning and feeding, larval rearing, disease and water quality, hatchery protocol, genetics, and hatchery management. There were several overarching topics spanning these themes, including diet optimisation, maximising the effective population size, and developing the technical skillbase in order to increase hatchery production to meet the projected increase in demand for oyster seed for habitat restoration efforts. We anticipate this list will provide a starting point for collaborative research efforts across Europe, as well as assisting policy makers and funders in identifying key knowledge gaps.

This research was sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (BO-43-116.01-012). The authors would like to thank Nik Sachlikidis and the many other colleagues who assisted by providing questions, bibliographic material, comments, suggestions and corrections. BP and BC acknowledge the support of the PROCEED project, funded by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, BfN, with funds from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, BMUV, as part of the Federal Program on Biological Diversity. The contribution by the Centre for Applied Marine Sciences (TG, NJ, SM) was funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 2014–2020 (Project reference: 82363). MA, FdC, AH and SH acknowledge the support of RemediOS Project, developed with the collaboration of the Biodiversity Foundation (Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge), through the Pleamar Program, co-financed by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

Peer reviewed