Glenmorangie Dornoch Firth oyster reef passion goes DEEP with 4 million target revealed for Highland project
A TRAILBLAZING project to restore a Dornoch Firth oyster reef fished to extinction over a century ago is being toasted in Easter Ross as a significant 10-year landmark is marked.
Malt whisky maker Glenmorangie is marking a decade of its pioneering environmental partnership to restore the reef by returning its 100,000th oyster to the Dornoch Firth near its Tain home.
And a leading scientist involved in the project said this week it could provide a blueprint for similar restoration schemes around the world, playing a part in tackling climate crises.
SEE ALSO
Free Ross-shire newsletter twice a week
Since 2014, the distillery and its partners, Heriot-Watt University and the Marine Conservation Society, have pursued their dream of bringing oysters back to the Firth in what is an environmental first.
Glenmorangie has a stated aim to protect and enhance the beautiful surroundings it has called home for more than 180 years and back in 2014 forged the Dornoch Environmental Enhancement Project, better known as DEEP, with its partners.
The aim was to regenerate the oyster reef which had long since been fished to extinction. The first few native European oysters (Ostrea edulis) were placed in the Firth close to Glenmorangie’s base in 2017, building up to 100,000 today.
And according to the partnership, there are literally millions more to come.
All grown by DEEP’s partner network of independent UK growers, the fledgling reef – one of the first in Europe – is beginning to flourish. Its success has already seen increased biodiversity as other creatures make the growing reef their home. Meanwhile, since oysters filter water as they feed, they act in tandem with Glenmorangie’s anaerobic digestion (AD) plant to help purify the distillery’s organic by-products of distillation by up to a claimed 98 per cent.
DEEP’s long-term ambition is to build up to four million oysters in the next five years. Spread over 40 hectares, these oysters will bring back a self-sustaining reef which once thrived in the Firth. Researchers believe their existence will also double biodiversity within ten years, transforming the seabed community.
To ensure DEEP can expand its future capacity, Glenmorangie has also commissioned a new workboat, Dornoch Dancer, built by local company Leco Marine based in nearby Alness. It will allow greater numbers of oysters to be transported to reef sites and provide a bigger working platform for DEEP’s divers. Dornoch Dancer’s size also enables the DEEP team to expand its engagement with the local community to become more involved in future deployments.
To help spread the word about DEEP and the importance of marine conservation, Glenmorangie also funds a trained information officer at the Marine Conservation Society who is based at the distillery. Working during the summer months, the officer engages visitors and the community on the aims and progress of the project and the wider work of the charity across Scottish waters and beyond.
Glenmorangie's president and CEO, Caspar MacRae said the firm wants to enhance the area for future generations, adding that “rather like whisky-making, restoration takes time”. He said: “There is still much more to do before nature takes over and transforms this fledgling reef into a fully biodiverse, self-sustaining ecosystem.”
Lead scientist Professor Bill Sanderson of Heriot-Watt University said that when started, DEEP was amongst the first Native European oyster restoration projects in existence, “so we have been trailblazing all the way”.
He said: “Today, when I dive to the sites, I’m delighted to see six or seven-year-old oysters, as big as my hand, and fish living among them – visually demonstrating the biodiversity value of our work so far. Now we are starting to scale up, until we reach critical mass – around four million oysters. There are very few examples of restoration at scale in the marine environment. We believe DEEP will be an exemplar for other restoration projects around the world.”
Head of policy and advocacy at the Marine Conservation Society, Calum Duncan, said: “With the climate and nature crises intensifying, efforts to restore lost ecosystems must accelerate.
“However, such ambition needs to be done carefully, and DEEP has excelled in ensuring all native oysters are cleaned and returned to the beautiful Firth. Over the past 10 years, we’ve proudly shared the project’s story with locals and visitors. We’ve also recruited volunteers to help clean oysters, playing a key role in the project's visionary goal of creating habitat for more species, locking up carbon and improving water quality.”
