24 February 2025
Volunteer task force to scrub 4,000 oysters on Tuesday 25 February, ahead of installation at Emsworth Yacht Harbour
Four thousand oysters are set to enter the waters of Emsworth Yacht Harbour in a few weeks time as an exciting new nature recovery project moves into action. Drawing on local community support, the ‘Return of the Oyster’ initiative is aimed at improving water quality and boosting biodiversity within this patch of Chichester Harbour. With this undertaking, driving forward Europe’s largest oyster restoration project in a marina to date, Emsworth’s oyster heritage will also be honoured and revitalised.
Sisters Poppy and Lottie Johns from Emsworth – on the border of West Sussex and Hampshire – are spearheading the project to help reverse damage in the harbour’s waters, with the support of the Blue Marine Foundation. (As ‘Harbour Oysters’, the sisters’ work is being charted on Instagram: @harbouroysters).
‘Following our successful pilot phase last year, in early March when the 4,000 oysters will be installed at Emsworth Yacht Harbour, at the east of this natural harbour within the wider Chichester Harbour,’ says Poppy. ‘Here they will naturally filter and improve the water quality.’
‘A mature oyster can filter up to 150 litres of water per day – significantly improving water quality and clarity,’ adds Lottie. ‘The European Osterea edulis is endemic to Emsworth and has been a keystone species in our natural environment and part of our local heritage well before Romans came to area. However, since the 1700s - due to overfishing, disease and pollution – stocks have been depleted by over 95%. As well as cleaning up the waters, we hope our oysters will act as broodstock to help support the rehabilitation of local native populations.’
Ahead of the oysters being installed at Emsworth Yacht Harbour, a task force of 60 volunteers has been organised by Chichester Harbour Conservancy’s Lead Ranger, Rosie Ellis to make sure the molluscs are properly cleaned to protect existing local oyster populations. The volunteers will assemble at the Institute of Marine Science Laboratory in Southsea next Tuesday 25 February for morning and afternoon scrubbing sessions.
‘Chichester Harbour Conservancy rangers regularly lead work parties for the Friends of Chichester Harbour. They help to attend to all types of habitat and maintenance tasks along our shorelines and landscapes,’ says Rosie. ‘Swapping scrub bashing for lab work and heading to Southsea to clean oysters is a big change from our usual work parties. Next Tuesday also calls for a larger size work party than normal with volunteers also coming from beyond the Friends of Chichester Harbour as well as within. Many thanks to all who have booked in to donate their time. It is fantastic to have so many eager to pitch in with the oyster scrubbing and help with nature recovery in the harbour.’
The ‘Return of the Oyster’ nature recovery project will also help to articulate and re-energise a key aspect of Emsworth’s heritage, recalling how the town was pre-eminent in the UK oyster trade in the late 18th century. A reported 24,000 oysters were said to have been dredged on a single tide in 1760, for instance, and the Emsworth Museum has a gallery dedicated to how the town became increasingly known for its oyster bounty. Moored at Emsworth Yacht Harbour today is the beautifully restored Oyster Boat Terror - the last example of an open-decked working sail boat from that period - which has undergone an an extensive restoration and now takes passengers on trips around the harbour between May – September each year.
‘Thanks to the Coward Endowment stepping forward with its very generous donation of £6,700, we have been able to secure the requisite funding for this stage of the ‘Return of the Oyster’ programme,’ says the Friends of Chichester Harbour’s chairman, Heather Baker. ‘As a charity, we work closely alongside Chichester Harbour Conservancy. While its role is management and improvement of the harbour, National Landscape and large-scale nature recovery, ours is to raise and source funds for environmental and community access projects of a certain size to take flight in the shorter-term that still deliver high impact results. Not only is the Johns sisters’ new intiative just such an endeavour but it is also seizing the local community’s interest and drawing together many with a shared concern for the sustainability and enhancement of our precious Chichester Harbour.
‘With the ‘Return of the Oyster’ echoes of the earlier ‘Return of the Tern’ project are apparent,’ adds Heather. ‘In that instance, we secured a grant from the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund in August 2021 for a collaboration with Chichester Harbour Conservancy that was designed to safe guard the natural habitat for breeding terns and increase the common tern population in the harbour.’
As well as seeking grants and indentifying suitable environmental projects to support – and fielding volunteers for Chichester Harbour Conservancy work parties - the Friends of Chichester Harbour also raises money from membership subscriptions and donations thanks, to the generosity of the public and its business partners. For those who wish to learn more about the Friends of Chichester Harbour and how to become involved with the charity’s nature recovery and community access projects, visit www.friendsch.org and/or follow on social media: Instagram @thefriendsch.org; Facebook FriendsofChichesterHarbour.