On a lovely sunny Thursday, members of Aldi UK’s sustainability team joined GreenTheUK alongside Blue Marine Foundation at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Portsmouth to take part in the Solent Oyster Restoration Project.

Thousands upon thousands of native oysters had to be scrubbed individually by hand to remove parasitic worms, snails, crabs, muck and grime, and more. This is a critical step in the process of creating new oyster reefs to avoid introducing any harmful pests and non-native species to the Solent.

After the oysters were cleaned, they had to be tagged, numbered, and measured as part of a data collection process. This way, when oyster samples are pulled up in the future, tagged oysters can be compared to their past selves providing information on their health and growth.

All 10,000+ oysters were succesfully deployed into their new home in the Solent over the following weekend.

Thank you to the Aldi team for giving their time to volunteer on this important initiative, and for sponsoring approximately 900 square metres of oyster reef restoration.