Bringing oysterplant back to Mousa!
Mousa, an island just lying off the east coast of mainland Shetland, was once home to the stunning, and rare, oysterplant. However, 30 years ago the plant was lost from Mousa’s shores. Species on the Edge is working with Shetland Amenity Trust to return it to its former home and ensure it remains there.
A team made up of Species on the Edge, Shetland Amenity Trust, and RSPB Shetland staff and volunteers, headed out to Mousa armed with young oysterplants.
There, they set to work planting them onto the rocky shores. However, how to ensure these young plants survive? One particular threat is sheep; sheep not only graze the leaf, but they pull out the plant at the tap root, completely killing it off. The team have come up with an ingenious and innovative technique: placing recycled lobster creels over them. These ropey contraptions allow the young plants to be protected from hungry sheep while still able to enjoy the Shetland sun.
Species on the Edge People Engagement Officer, Gareth, has been working with a team of volunteers to create small signs for the oysterplant-covering-creels. Aren’t they beautiful!
The team are now busy checking every previous record of Oysterplant on the beaches in Shetland. This is to scope out potential new areas for the translocation work. Hopefully, where the shores of Shetland were once sprinkled with the purple-pink flowers of this ‘gift of the sea’, they will once again.
