Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie made a visit to key partners in the Solent Seascape Project, in which the University is a key partner.
Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie recently visited the University of Portsmouth to see the important work being done to restore coastal marine life in the region through the Solent Seascape Project.
In her capacity as a Blue Marine Foundation Ambassador, Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie made a visit to key partners in the project, a multi-million-pound initiative to restore marine habitats across the Solent region involving the University of Portsmouth. This ambitious five-year partnership, funded by the Endangered Landscapes Programme, aims to restore seagrass, saltmarsh, oysters and seabird nesting habitat to the Solent, reconnecting this vital seascape.
The project has taken significant steps recently, with work to restore saltmarsh in Chichester harbour already started and oyster restoration on a substantial scale underway following the formation of a new reef in the River Hamble.
The Solent strait is one of the most heavily used waterways in the UK. It is under increasing pressure from coastal squeeze, poor water quality, recreational disturbance and rising sea levels. Sadly, this has resulted in the Solent’s internationally important marine and coastal habitats becoming diminished, degraded, and fragmented.
The Princess accompanied the Solent team to the University’s Institute of Marine Sciences to make biosecurity checks on native oysters being prepared for introduction in Langstone Harbour. These crucial nurseries dotted around the Solent’s marinas will help to repopulate the newly created oyster beds in Langstone Harbour and the River Hamble, by producing millions of offspring that can settle and grow on their new homes. The team also monitors the biodiversity around the nurseries which act as hotspots for species including critically endangered European eel, seahorses, and seabass.
HRH Princess Eugenie inspects a native oyster at the Institute of Marine Science with Blue Marine Foundation’s Dr Luke Helmer, who was a former PhD student at the University. Credit: Matt Jarvis, Blue Marine Foundation.
The Princess then took a boat trip to help the team lower the new nurseries against a pontoon in Langstone Harbour. The initiative is helping to boost oyster numbers in the Solent and helping to restore the once largest native oyster fishery in Europe. Restoring oyster beds is vitally important due to their value to local fishermen, but also the many ecosystem services that a healthy oyster population provides – such as water filtration, protecting our coastline from erosion and creating habitat for marine biodiversity.
HRH Princess Eugenie said of the visit: “It was so inspiring to visit the Blue Marine team in Portsmouth and learn about the important role marine wildlife and habitat plays in the waterways of the Solent. I’m so excited by scalable projects like this, putting life back literally oyster-by-oyster. The Solent Seascape partnership really shows what can be achieved when passionate and dedicated partners come together to raise ambitions for the environment.”
Her Royal Highness completed her visit meeting project partners including the RSPB, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and the Environment Agency at the Spinnaker Tower, taking in views of the Solent strait, a major estuary system covering 522km2 between mainland England and the Isle of Wight and discussing the vital actions the project partners are taking to restore the Solent’s seascape.