by A cargo ship that lies on the bottom of the sea off the Belgian coast was equipped with a new treasure chest: a stock of rare flat oysters.
Molluscs are mostly from the disappearance North Sea Because of human activities, including overfishing.
Now a Belgian project is trying to put it back into one step in which scientists believe to increase other types of sea.
“We have to bring them back because they are essential elements in our Marine ecosystems,” Vicky Stratigaki, an engineer who is working on the restoration project, told AFP.
In mid -July, a load of 200,000 oyster larvae, which were attached to biodegradable materials, was deposited about 100 feet under the sea in the hull.
The environmental project called Belreefs aims to transform the wreck into a sanctuary of biological diversity.
Flat oysters form reefs that clean water and that other sea animals, from fish to algae, are used as breeding and feeding buildings, said Stratigaki.
“There are a lot of predators in the sea, it is a wild environment,” she said, with around 30,000 oyster larvae, will probably survive at sea. “Then you will start reproducing, expanding the reef and also supporting the biological diversity of the reef.”
The relocation of the Oyster stock is the highlight of two years of work for the Belgian government project, which is supported by the financing of the European Union.
“Until the 1850s, the North Sea and the European waters were full of oysters,” said Stratigaki.
The spread of an imported parasite called Bonamia and “climatic disadvantageous effects” then caused them to overfish that they disappeared, she said.
The wrecks of 1906, about 20 miles off the coastal town of Eastern, was selected to accommodate the pilots because it is implemented with fishing and other disruptive activities.
“In Belgium, every wreck that has been on the sea floor for more than a hundred years is automatically protected as a cultural heritage because it is nice for divers to go there,” said Merel Oeyen, expert in the Belgian Ministry of Health. “It is also a hotspot for biological diversity.”
In a paper published in Bioscience from 2023, it was found that shipwrecks provide important ecological resources for a variety of organisms, from tiny microbes to large sea creatures.
“Small fish and mobile crustaceans are often protected in the columns of the sunken material, and larger bait fish and predators use shipwrecks as feeding reasons and stops, while swimming from one place to the other,” said NOAA, which contributed to carrying out the study.
However, scientists also warned that shipwreck can also damage the existing marine life in the area or wear harmful freight like oil.
Nevertheless, the author of the study said Avery Paxton, shipwrecks can lead “second life” as houses for a variety of marine life.
“The transformation of a ship from a boat ship to a flourishing metropolis for Marine Life has a fairytale quality,” said Paxton in an article published by the Washington Post, which was published after the study was published.
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