The Royal Navy is helping to reintroduce oysters to the Solent after nearly half a century thanks to a unique project opposite Portsmouth Naval Base.

European flat oysters are being reintroduced to the Solent through a joint MOD conservation project aiming to boost marine life and help clean the waters of the strait between the Isle of Wight and the Hampshire coast.

It is hoped that the re-introduction of 2,000 oysters to the area after nearly half a century will encourage marine life back to heavily-used waters – the Royal Navy’s vessels form part of 130,000 movements per year around Portsmouth Harbour.

Several oyster crates have been installed by the project team on pontoons at the southern end of Whale Island to grow juvenile oysters – in a bid to re-establish a healthy population of the native species.

The initiative, known as the Whale Island Native Oyster Restoration Project, is a collaboration between the Salvage and Marine Operations (SALMO) Wrecks team, part of the MOD’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation; the Royal Navy; the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and the Blue Marine Foundation (BMF) charity.