To help Oyster Heaven realise its mission, Rewilding Europe Capital – Rewilding Europe’s enterprise loan facility – has loaned the startup 100,000 euros. The money will be used to bridge a financial gap and fund an oyster restoration initiative in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt Delta area of the Netherlands. By the end of this initiative, 4 million oysters will have been restored on the seabed, with this number expected to at least double after 10 years of natural population growth. “The restoration of oyster reefs can make a significant contribution to the rewilding of the ocean and I’m excited to see how Oyster Heaven’s work scales up moving forwards.”
"The Chesapeake Bay region is seeing a shortage of oyster shell to use for the restoration of reefs. While there are alternative substrates that are currently in use, such as concrete, those materials are expensive and detrimental to the health of the reef and the bay. The Oyster Heaven substrate provides a safe, affordable, and effective option for long-term restoration."
"Over the summer of 2023 DTU Aqua tested the Oyster Heaven ‘Mother Reef’ artificial oyster regeneration substrate. This product is exciting because not only was it demonstrated as an effective oyster settlement substrate in Laboratory tests but there are a set of other important features that it possesses that make it a strong potential candidate for large scale oyster regeneration. As it is made from clay, it is low cost, can be produced in high quantities from any brick factory, and is far more climate friendly than concrete products. Additionally, when fired at low temperatures the reef will erode in the water slowly over time leaving nothing behind once the oysters have a chance to grow to create their own 3d structures. This makes it a highly suitable product for degraded, but protected, marine environments that need a kick start to habitat regeneration."
"As work-package lead, investigating the remediation of nutrients through a number of mechanisms across the catchment, I have been in discussion with Oyster Heaven regarding the possibility of utilizing its tools and products. I am committed to expanded my research and academic interests in this area and pursuing work with Oyster Heaven in this area. I agree that the ecosystem services that fully functioning oyster reefs can provide can provide an exciting and interesting opportunity for marine management and conservation."
"Oyster Heaven's unique approach offers a tunable solution (permanence time), adaptable to various environmental conditions, making it well-suited to the specific needs of a given ecosystem and ensures minimal ecological footprint by using natural products. Involvement of local fisheries, makes it a highly cost-efficient measure while also benefitting the local economy and encouraging environmental stewardship among fishers. Additionally, Oyster Heaven's solution immediately provides the critical mass of oysters needed for ecosystem takeoff, ensuring rapid and effective regeneration of oyster reefs. The combination of these factors makes Oyster Heaven's solution an interesting and innovative model that holds great promise for the future of marine conservation. We are confident in their ability to achieve significant positive impact and would recommend Oyster Heaven for any partnerships, collaborations, or broader engagements."
"Over the years, we have observed that scaling conservation and regeneration efforts to compete with resource exploitation has been a daunting challenge, primarily due to the dependence on philanthropic or academic funding. Effective solutions need to break out of this bubble of financing and incentives, in order to begin to achieve impact at scale. Oyster Heaven has developed a unique model that combines sound ecological processes with smart and practical economics. Their approach of using biodiversity and nitrogen credits paves the way for large-scale oyster reef regeneration as a viable business model."
"One of the keystone species for rewilding our seas is the native oyster. It provides an important role in supporting other species as well as filtering pollutants in our oceans. The Oyster Heaven project has developed a low-cost bio-degradable substrate that will be suitable for establishing oyster reefs in areas where the seabed has been damaged. The substrate is easily manufactured and transported and can be deployed from boats. This is a significant step forward in the effort to establish new reef systems or restore areas of existing reef that have been lost, and to move towards 30% rewilding within our seas. The business model developed by Oyster Heaven based on nitrogen offsetting could also provide a much needed blueprint to upscale marine rewilding across Britain. Oyster Heaven are part of our Rewilding Network and have delivered a webinar around nitrogen funding to our growing number of network members. We support this work and would like to see it continue in order to evelopment/research environmentally friendly substrates for oyster restoration. The findings of the research would be incredibly useful to members of the Rewilding Network community."
"Recently, we have become interested in the possibility of expanding the Wild Ken Hill project beyond its terrestrial landscape. Owning and managing a c.3km stretch of The Wash, it feels logical to explore taking. As such, we have been in discussion with Oyster Heaven regarding the possibility of utilising its tools and products to initiate an oyster regeneration project in The Wash, subject of course to their being positive appetite from the relevant local authorities, NGOs and stakeholders, which we think there will be. We think the role oysters play as cornerstone species, and other ecosystem services that they provide – such as carbon sequestration and nutrient management – make the idea extremely exciting."
"Oyster reef ecosystems provide important ecosystem services. They provide a substrate for other organisms, food for many creatures not just from the oysters themselves, but all the other organisms using the substrates. Oyster reefs make a significant contribution to the uptake of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphates as well as carbon which is then stored in the oyster shells. Oyster reefs can also improve the clarity of surrounding water providing benefits to other species such as seagrass. Oyster reefs can significantly reduce marine pollution from sewage and nutrient runoff from farming. Oyster Heaven has developed a low-cost bio-degradable substrate that will be suitable for establishing oyster reefs in areas where the seabed has been damaged. The substrate is easily manufactured and transported and can be deployed from boats. This is a significant step forward in the effort to establish new reef systems or restore areas of existing reef that have been lost."
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