Poole's Pacific Oysters

Poole harbour, on the south coast of England, is the largest Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) production area in England. It is also home to Gary Wordsworth’s company, Othniel Oysters, which has been producing and selling oysters for almost 40 years.

Othniel Oysters has become the largest Pacific oyster producer in England, sending more than 2 million oysters – amounting to several hundred tonnes – to markets in the UK, Hong Kong, China and France, amongst others.

Pacific oysters, which are native to Japan and SE Asia, were first introduced to the UK in the late 1960s, to kick start the oyster industry following the gradual collapse of European Native oyster (Ostrea edulis) stocks due to overfishing and disease. It was hoped that the cooler temperature of British waters would prevent them from reproducing; however, over time some oysters escaped and created small feral populations.

Non-governmental organisations such as Natural England have become overly-excited about feral oysters, and their stance is to encourage the smashing of local populations. They are also clamping down on the production of non-indigenous species and oyster farmers fear that Natural England’s strict policy currently threatens the wider UK oyster industry.

French seed

Gary imports triploid seed from French hatcheries as his growing stock. Triploid seed are sterile, so cannot breed and become part of the feral oyster population.

The seed are bought in measuring 6mm, and ongrown in mesh bags held in a stacking cage system, hung underneath Gary’s converted 30 x 15 metre Ro-Ro ferry in Poole Harbour, which doubles as a nursery and workshop. Each stack can hold 28 bags, and the craft has the capacity to hold 4 million oysters.

The baby oysters are protected from predators in the stacking system, and receive plenty of food, which they filter from the plankton-rich waters of the harbour.

“Once the oysters reach 10g in weight, they are too large to be eaten by predators such as crabs, and are ready to be scattered onto the seabed. We then leave them there to ongrow to market size,” Gary said.

He explained that the warm temperatures of Poole harbour are ideal for growing oysters, but that the geography, and the space / mooring requirements of the 7,000+ yachts he shares his corner of the world with, have constrained his choice of production method.

“The oysters are brought to the UK in the autumn, nurtured in the stacks over the winter, then introduced to their new seabed home the following spring. They are ready for harvesting from October onwards, which takes place using a low-impact conveyor harvester. It takes from 12 to 18 months for our oysters to grow from 6mm to harvest size,” Gary said.

Once harvested, the oysters are moved to a biosecure depuration plant, where they are held in purified seawater before being packed in poly boxes with ice, ready for transportation to the customer. Gary also packs into large net bags stacked on pallets, which are send to other depuration plants for cleaning and processing.

Growing oysters on the seabed may sound simple, and Gary’s farm is highly mechanised, but there is still a lot of work involved!

“Our method is not as back-breaking as working an intertidal trestle system, but we still need to keep a close eye on how the oysters are growing. To do this, we regularly harvest and inspect the growing shells, before dropping them back onto the seabed,” he said.

Coping with a pandemic

When the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, global markets were lost overnight, as restaurants shut.

“It was a terrible blow,” Gary said.

Of the five people working in the company, two were put on furlough, and the rest retained to maintain the farm.

“An oyster farm is a living entity that has to be maintained. It cannot just be left,” he explained.

This year (2021), business is slowly regaining traction, and Gary has sold a lot more oysters to wholesalers and restaurants on the UK’s south coast, as people flock to the area in place of their habitual foreign holiday.

“It’s good for business, but I wonder if this new trade will last. Perhaps people will realise that they can also enjoy a plate of oysters in the UK and not just on a beach in France or Spain,” he said.

Gary also continues to sell large quantities to Hong Kong and China, which are markets he has supplied for over 20 years. However, he is finding this trade more challenging, as an increasing number of companies enter the export market to Asia.

The farm provides plenty of scope for study, and research is an important aspect of the business for Gary, who has facilitated many MSc and PhD students from Bournemouth University.

“Oysters also provide many eco-system services, including the provision of habitats for other species, water filtering, removal of nitrates and nitrites, and sequestration of carbon. All of this means they are very good for the planet,’ Gary said.

He is planning for the succession of his company, with his current manager Rob Milton taking over sometime in the next few years. However, Gary would like to hand-over in the knowledge that the heavy regulatory burden has eased, although this seems unlikely any time in the near future.

“I see constraints in every direction, and it seems as if we are constantly having to fight a new battle, or some new piece of nonsense legislation designed to make us feel like criminals for doing our job. The government is encouraging us to make aquaculture more productive through various national strategies, but is not providing an enabling environment for us achieve this and has no coherent policies. NGOs also seem to be working against us, rather than with us,” Gary said.

However, he remains upbeat, and determined to find a way through. The world has been his oyster for four decades, and Gary is not about to be defeated now!