Fish for Tees

The Fish for Tees project is a catchment wide program run by the Tees Rivers Trust and funded by the Green Recovery Challenge Fund. The aim of the program is to improve habitats and passage for fish along the length of the River Tees. As part of this, the Trust launched a project to reintroduce native oysters (Ostrea edulis) to the Tees estuary and surrounding coastline. In the early 1900s the Tees Estuary had a thriving oyster fishery which was lost due to land reclamation and declining water quality. Tees Rivers Trust are investigating the survivability of native oysters in tees coastal waters and the viability of larger scale restoration in the area.

Oyster nurseries were installed in September 2022 Hartlepool Marina consisting of 20 Oyster cages holding over 600 adult oysters. 100 volunteers have been involved in monthly monitoring sessions recording over 30 species living within and around the oyster nurseries. Survival rate of the oysters was over 95% for the first 9 months of the project. The Trust has built a spatting pond to trial spawning oyster to produce spat on shell and is currently scoping out area for potential reef restoration within Tees Bay.