TALK by Eric Harris-Scott from Blue Marine Foundation - REPORT by Claire Ashton

Published 07:41 on 22 Feb 2024

********* Report by Claire Ashton *******

Thank you to all those that attended the excellent talk last month from Eric Harris-Scott from the Solent Seascape Project. He gave us a very informative talk about how they are trying to restore the salt marsh, sea grass, terns and oysters in Chichester and Langstone harbours. Eric is very passionate about the oysters and mentioned some opportunities that may come up shortly for help cleaning the next batch of oysters in the labs at Portsmouth University. I have attached a link to their website and a great video on the oyster restoration project. A great challenge with the current situation with water quality, but it will be amazing if it works.

https://www.bluemarinefoundation.com/projects/sole..."

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Come and listen to Eric Harris-Scott from Blue Marine Foundation talk about the restoration work being carried out with the habitats and species we have in the Solent and why this is crucial at local and international scales.

Saturday 23rd March
Arrive at 7:30pm for talk at 8pm.

at Langstone Sailing Club. Bar will be open.

Speaker: Eric Harris-Scott- Eric has been based in the Solent since starting his studies in 2015 at the University of Portsmouth, where he was looking into biodiversity associated with native oysters. Prior to joining Blue, he worked on nature-based nutrient remediation solutions. He is driven to improve his local coastline through key habitat restoration.

Solent Seascape Project: The Solent Seascape Project is an ambitious venture which will bring together and build on existing restoration efforts to catalyse seascape scale recovery across the 52,200 ha that make up the Solent. The project will better manage existing marine and coastal habitats and restore the ecosystem, reconnecting fragmented habitats, recovering populations of associated species, facilitating resilience to climate change, and demonstrating the measurable benefits to the people who live and work in the area.

On top of this, the project will pioneer and monitor the impact of large-scale blue carbon restoration in the UK, and act as a test site for implementation and further development of blue carbon methodologies.

Claire Ashton - Environment Officer