Carrickfergus Marina: 30 oyster cages installed to ‘boost biodiversity and improve water quality’

The borough council’s Environment and Economy Committee was given an environmental performance update at a meeting in The Braid, Ballymena, on Monday evening.

An oyster nursery has also been installed at Glenarm Marina in association with Ulster Wildlife.

The report said: “In addition to supporting the expansion of wild populations, the oysters will help boost biodiversity and improve water quality by filtering pollutants.”

Commenting on the biodiversity project at the meeting, Carrick Castle DUP Alderman Billy Ashe MBE said: “I do not see a huge impact of putting them into the marina. We should be putting them closer to where people are swimming in the sea to improve water quality.”

An officer replied the project involved working with Ulster Wildlife to identify the best location for the oysters.

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Ald Ashe remarked: “People are swimming at Fisherman’s Quay not swimming in the marina. It is against by-laws to swim at the marina.”

The Carrick project is the third of its kind in Northern Ireland. There are currently 16 restoration projects in the UK one of which is an oyster nursery at Bangor Marina.

At Glenarm Marina, oysters from Loch Ryan in Scotland have been placed in cages and bags hanging below pontoons. The nursery facility will remain in place for four years with monitoring by Ulster Wildlife.

It is understood an oyster nursery can improve water quality at marinas with one oyster able to filter eight litres of water an hour.

Ulster Wildlife says in Northern Ireland, extensive oyster beds are known to have existed in Belfast Lough, Carlingford Lough and Lough Foyle for several hundred years and Glenarm has also been home to native oyster beds.

Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter