An exciting project to repopulate the Bay of Firth with Oysters is holding a public information event in Finstown Community Centre today, Saturday 15 March, from 10 am to 4pm.

The project organisers are very keen to make sure that this is a development not just in the community but supported and involving it.

A preview of the information event was held on Friday and The Orkney News went along to check it out.

The project is being developed by Northbay Innovations Ltd and Dennis Gowland, with 40 years in the farming of oysters, set out the plans for the project in a series of slides.

Firth has a long history of fishing for Oysters but this project would be a different kind of development with the environment very much central to its aims.

Extensive surveys have been done of the Bay of Firth area and although no native oysters could be found, there were many other examples of marine wildlife in and on the sea bed. If the oysters were to be reintroduced this would enhance the biodiversity and restore the Bay to what it was once like.

Two other presentations were made. Gareth Davies and Andrew Hunt – part of the larger team working collaboratively on the project.

The project would see a container hatchery situated close to the water where the developing oysters could be grown on till able to be put out into the Bay. Once they had developed fully they would be released into the water and over time would be able to self-populate. It is envisaged that this part of the project would take 10 years.

The developers were keen to stress that this would be a locally owned project, and hope to set up a Local Native Oyster Restoration Group (LNORG), of all those interested.

The public exhibition includes information boards of how the project is going so far and what it has discovered through its extensive surveys.

Although the Bay of Firth Native Oyster Restoration Project has done extensive surveys this is very much still the first phase of the development. The organisers are hoping that with community involvement that it will become a central feature of the village of Finstown for visitors and locals.

This project would restore not just native oysters to the Bay of Firth but re-balance the marine environment.

You can find out more about the project at the public exhibition in the Finstown Hall on Saturday 15 March between 10 and 4, and by clicking on this link: Northbay Innovations Ltd.

Fiona Grahame