On the 1st & 2nd April 2025, the Native Oyster Network held a two-day conference, hosted by the Marine Institute and Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) in Galway City, Ireland. We had an inspiring couple of days bringing the Native Oyster Network and restoration community together, hearing Project Updates from around the UK and Ireland, and presentations in Restoration Monitoring & Advances in Methods, Modelling, Site Selection & Climate Change, and Biosecurity (INNS & Disease). A huge thank you to our speakers and poster-presenters for sharing their incredible work and knowledge.
On the afternoon of the second day, we held two informative workshop sessions led by Oliver Tully and Philine zu Ermgassen. In the first workshop, ‘How can policy makers help to facilitate oyster restoration?’, we heard from three policy representatives across the UK and Ireland, who set the scene on where we sit in current frameworks and how we can further engage with key policy makers to help scale up restoration. This led onto an engaging discussion, from which we hope some important outputs will develop, one of which being the development of a target for oyster habitat restoration to be proposed to Defra for inclusion in the Environment Improvement Plan. Roger Proudfoot sought input from the network, and a target was consequently drafted and will be reviewed.
In the second workshop, ‘Oyster production and seed supply’, delegates worked in break-out groups categorised by ‘role’ in the native oyster restoration community. This session addressed the current state-of-play of how we produce and supply oysters for restoration, with a focus on hatchery-produced seed, and what we want the future of seed supply to look like to achieve restoration at scale. The information captured in this workshop and in online questionnaires circulated during the event will feed into the development of a roadmap to scaling up seed supply for restoration.
Field Excursion hosted by Cuan Beo
On the final day, Cuan Beo organised a brilliant morning in the sunshine along Killeenaran Pier, enlightening the network on Cuan Beo’s background & vision, education & outreach, policy & political engagement, heritage, and restoration, environment, and aquaculture. To top it off, we enjoyed a Guinness and a few local oysters on the beach in the sunshine! A big thank you to Cuan Beo for organising such an informative and enjoyable morning.
