Dr Nick Lake

Local response to a global crisis and other growth blockers

OUR annual conference last year tackled the big issue of the potential for cultivated shellfish to help save the planet. The predominant feeling was that shellfish and cultivation activities did present a wide range of benefits in relation to human health and nutrition; environmental sustainability; rural employment and cohesion; and a reduced carbon footprint for high quality marine protein production.

While the Scottish shellfish cultivation industry by itself is not going to make the world a healthier and happier place, we can have an impact within Scotland and promote a positive message.

We are probably guilty as a sector of spending too little time evangelising about the benefits of our products and how raising consumption of shellfish could have far wider benefits to society.

One of our sector’s long term supporters has been the Crown Estate – now Crown Estate Scotland (CES)- which acts as both landlord for the majority of the Scottish foreshore and seabed and also has a strong stewardship role in how the estate is managed.

The formation of CES has seen this role extending into not only the development of its assets, but also the possible community benefits which can arise, locally and for Scotland PLC.

In order to define and capture these benefits, CES has commissioned an independent study looking at the available scientific evidence surrounding ecosystem services provided by such developments.

While such information can often be hostage to complex scientific explanation, one key aspect of this study is for the findings to be used to inform the wider debate.

The output will be disseminated to the community, especially those within our coastal populations and including those within government, the regional planning and regulatory systems. Such information should help to inform the debate on what we are collectively wishing to achieve by supporting the development of the Scottish shellfish cultivation industry.

You may think that is obvious, but, from an industry perspective, we are constantly challenged by mixed messages from government and its agencies and, unless these are resolved fairly soon, there will be little future development or new businesses established.

Building resilience

We are faced with some environmental challenges on the planet which make localised geo-political issues completely inconsequential. A recent headline from Scottish researchers included, ‘The world’s shellfish are under threat as our oceans become more acidic’.

This was partially qualified by noting that in Scotland acidification is less of an imminent threat as there are no sulphate soils or deeper water with high CO2 levels rising to the surface, as is more evident in Australia and America where problems have already been identified.

However, it was noted that coastal acidification is made worse by climate change with lowered pH associated with fresh water run-off.

Unfortunately, we are known for our Gaelic sunshine (rainfall!) levels on the west coast. Even more concerning is the recent reporting of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which should be of more than a passing interest for all nations and political leaders.

The potential extent of sea level rise is staggering and it seems likely this has become a ‘when’ question rather than an ‘if’, with the full impacts felt by our children’s generation.

When faced with such tumultuous scenarios such as climate change, population growth and food security, it would be easy to just be resigned to the inevitable.

However, there are actions we should and can put in train – the sooner the better- and development of shellfish cultivation and the scale of our activities is part of this scenario.

ASSG conference 2019

I have noted before that there is a real need to use the shellfish cultivation knowledge we currently have, either in hatcheries or in on-growing operations, and to realistically harness the expertise of the research community to help build an industry with multiple benefits for communities and society.

However, I am not advocating that we simply all become volunteers and campaign for shellfish with a religious fervour! What we do have to achieve is to create the regulatory and socio-economic conditions where shellfish businesses can thrive and place products on to the market which meet consumer demands, and where increased consumption equates with increased wider social and environmental benefits.

In support of this, there is a real need for the industry to achieve community engagement at the local, regional and national levels.

The concept of the resilience of the shellfish sector is the key theme for this year’s ASSG conference in Oban (October 31-November 1).

“In planning officials’ eyes oyster trestles are a blot on the seascape”

Time is of the essence to identify and resolve some of the ‘blockers’ to the true development potential of the Scottish shellfish cultivation industry.

Currently, many of these lie within the consent process for establishing and operating shellfish cultivation businesses. While no individual party should be seen to be pivotal in stifling development, the combined bureaucracy and lack of strategic thinking is telling on enterprise.

Hopefully, it is not too late for the political decision makers to identify a way ahead which could help to stave off some of the more extreme environmental problems which are on the horizon.

Community views

We produce wonderful shellfish which is of the highest quality and with great environmental credentials, so how could anybody possibly object to plans to establish a farming site?

South of the border there seems to be just such a debate taking place in a community which has actually been founded on the success of the shellfish industry. Most people, even if only vaguely aware of shellfish issues, will think of oysters if you mention Whitstable.

However, the very basis of this small town’s success in creating a mecca for oyster lovers and happy diners seems to be troubling some of those within its community.

While dredging native oysters appears to be an acceptable heritage and quaint activity to employ a few rustic fishermen, the act of cultivating oysters in the sea is causing great angst for some.

With the decline in native oyster stocks, cultivation of the Pacific oyster to satisfy the local demand seems to be a wholly logical progression.

However, in local planning officials’ eyes, in response to local community concerns, this has become an all-encompassing activity and if reports are to be believed a blot on the seascape.

It is obviously a question for the local community to decide and it is going to a local planning inquiry. But you do have to wonder how such a local process can cope with the wider community, and indeed national and international interests associated with the role of climate change and the use of our marine environment.

Even if we have a one metre rise in sea level, what will that mean for our collective community view of the coastline? Sea level rise and storms will lead to greater sediment loading in many coastal locations – so not only do we lose land for agriculture but the marine inshore natural community is also likely to be changed.

Shellfish such as cockles and oysters do get buried and smothered in shifting sediments, and greater terrestrial plumes will likely contribute to such natural losses.

Hence having stock off the seabed on trestles for cultivation may be a way to hedge against the loss of native oyster production.

The fact that the Pacific oyster is robust enough to thrive under such conditions- whereas the native oyster struggles to survive and grow- indicates that if we want to have an affordable happiness of eating oysters in the future, it will likely be through the success of cultivation businesses. Scale of the problem

It is worth noting that in the Whitstable case the total numbers of oyster trestles involved is reported to be around 3,500. It will seem entirely obvious to those within the industry that the visual impact of such a development is greatly reduced by the location on the foreshore required for any oyster business to be viable. However, for the wider community it may not.

For the oysters to grow, they need to feed on the natural algae in the water, and in order to feed they need to be under the water – hence, maximum feeding potential per day is at the very lowest level of the tide (which just about allows enough time for the oysters to be uncovered every spring tide for the shellfish farming business to tend the stock).

Rough rule of thumb would be that in such a production system the baskets and trestles would be uncovered by the tide for around an average seven per cent of the time in the sea.

Given that eight to 12 hours per day will be under the cover of darkness, we are looking at a visual impact on a very small area of coastline for around 3.5 per cent of waking hours.

Not a judgement for me to make as I am a vested interest, but I would say from a food security perspective and the enjoyment that eating shellfish brings to the wider community, this is a price which should easily be accommodated.

Of course, our French neighbours have realised the true potential of not only eating oysters but also encouraging the local communities to be involved in their production and benefit from this.

Tourism is a part of this picture around the majority of the French coast and it is an awe inspiring site to see the scale of the developments and the associated community benefits.

Scottish context

Bringing it back over the border, where does this leave us with the development of the shellfish industry? Well, the challenges are all there in the coastal waters, with sea level rise and sediment and fresh water loadings likely to result in significant changes in the coastal flora and fauna – especially that fixed to the seabed and vulnerable to storms and freshwater inputs.

The west coast and the islands’ sediment loadings will not be as severe as those on the east coast as the land is not as mineral rich, productive or abundant. But with poorer mineral loadings, the impact of acidification may become more rapidly pronounced.

Can cultivation react to these likely challenges and deliver shellfish as a food commodity? Undoubtedly yes, both from the foreshore areas for Pacific oysters and also within sheltered sea lochs for mussel production.

Are we currently in a position to capitalise on the expertise displayed by our developing shellfish cultivation industry? Industry certainly is, but is the wider community?

Read all about it

A great headline recently was that Scotland’s largest oyster farm had been given the go-ahead by planning officials.

What was not reported was that despite this being located in one of Scotland’s most highly industrialised Firths, to gain such a consent had taken an extensive period (more than three years), with the developer having to finance an almost six-figure sum to gain the consent.

The community of agencies and interests requiring assurances that trestles on the foreshore would not adversely impact the local ecosystem or lead to the seascape being impacted, all required evidence to satisfy their own perspectives.

We need to make the most of this sort of announcement in Scotland as it is now very difficult to see who within the Scottish industry has these sorts of financial reserves to establish new shellfish sites on the mainland.

It has to be remembered that it will, of course, be a likely further three to five years after permissions are granted that shellfish will be able to be placed on the market, and longer still for the business to be profitable.