Posted on July 13, 2026
For the first time, we used our Oyster Reef Restoration Unit to seed rocks with young oysters and install them at an offshore location. We seeded two thousand rocks, that function as hard reef substrates, with 1.2 million young oysters and lowered them to the bottom of the North Sea, 40 kilometres off the Belgian coast.
Mobile oyster reef restoration unit
For this project, we designed and built our own mobile oyster reef restoration unit. The system consists of two modular containers that work together. One container houses the tank where young oysters are introduced to reef material, while the other contains the water treatment and filtration systems. Together, they form a mobile facility that can be transported and deployed anywhere in the world. Thanks to its modular design, the unit is easy to handle, transport, and install wherever it is needed.
For the recent installation, the unit was operated in partnership with the Aquaculture & ARC laboratory at Ghent University. During the remote setting campaign, 5 million oyster larvae were introduced into the system. Around 1.2 million successfully settled on the reef material and developed into juvenile oysters. The process took five weeks in total: one week for the larvae to settle, followed by four weeks of growth and acclimatisation to local conditions. This prepared the young oysters for deployment at the pilot restoration site in Belgium.
