Glenmorangie Highland single malt Scotch whisky is marking 10 years of its pioneering environmental partnership to restore an extinct oyster reef, by returning its 100,000th oyster to the Dornoch Firth near its home. Since 2014, the Distillery and its partners, Heriot-Watt University and the Marine Conservation Society, have passionately pursued their dream of bringing oysters back to the Firth, in an environmental first.
Glenmorangie has long been dedicated to protecting and enhancing the beautiful surroundings which it has called home for more than 180 years. With a vision of making its Highland world even more wonderful, in 2014 the Distillery forged the Dornoch Environmental Enhancement Project, known as DEEP, with its partners. The aim was to regenerate the oyster reef in the Firth, which was fished to extinction over a century ago. The first few native European oysters (Ostrea edulis) were placed in the Firth off Glenmorangie’s coast in 2017, building up to 100,000 today – with millions more to come.
All grown by DEEP’s partner network of independent UK growers, this fledgling reef – one of the first in Europe – is beginning to flourish. Its success has already seen increased biodiversity, as other creatures use the growing reef to make it their home. Meanwhile, since oysters filter water as they feed, they act in tandem with Glenmorangie’s Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant to help purify the Distillery’s organic by-products of distillation by up to 98 per cent. DEEP’s long-term ambition is to build up to four million oysters in the next five years. Spread over 40 hectares these oysters will bring back a self-sustaining reef which once thrived in the Firth. Researchers believe their existence will also double biodiversity within ten years, transforming the seabed community.
To ensure DEEP can expand its future capacity, Glenmorangie has also commissioned a new workboat, ‘Dornoch Dancer’, built by local company Leco Marine based in nearby Alness. It will allow greater numbers of oysters to be transported to reef sites and provide a bigger working platform for DEEP’s divers. Dornoch Dancer’s size also enables the DEEP team to expand its engagement with the local community to become more involved in future deployments. To help spread the word about DEEP and the importance of marine conservation, Glenmorangie also funds a trained information officer at the Marine Conservation Society who is based at the Distillery. Working during the summer months, the officer engages visitors and the community on the aims and progress of the project and the wider work of the charity across Scottish waters and beyond.
Glenmorangie’s President and CEO, Caspar MacRae said: “At Glenmorangie, we aim not just to protect our beautiful Highland world, but to enhance it for future generations. That is why we formed our groundbreaking DEEP partnership a decade ago. Of course, rather like whisky-making, restoration takes time. From the seed of an idea to restoring 100,000 oysters to the Firth, we have achieved much in 10 years. But there is still much more to do before nature takes over and transforms this fledgling reef into a fully biodiverse, self-sustaining ecosystem.”
Lead scientist Professor Bill Sanderson of Heriot-Watt University said: “When we began DEEP 10 years ago, it was amongst the first Native European oyster restoration projects in existence, so we have been trailblazing all the way. Today, when I dive to the sites, I’m delighted to see six or seven-year-old oysters, as big as my hand, and fish living among them – visually demonstrating the biodiversity value of our work so far. Now we are starting to scale up, until we reach critical mass – around 4 million oysters. There are very few examples of restoration at scale in the marine environment. We believe DEEP will be an exemplar for other restoration projects around the world.”
Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Marine Conservation Society, Calum Duncan, said: “We’re delighted to partner with this pioneering project to reintroduce native oysters to their rightful place in the Dornoch Firth. With the climate and nature crises intensifying, efforts to restore lost ecosystems must accelerate. However, such ambition needs to be done carefully, and DEEP has excelled in ensuring all native oysters are cleaned and returned to the beautiful Firth. Over the past 10 years, we’ve proudly shared the project’s story with locals and visitors. We’ve also recruited volunteers to help clean oysters, playing a key role in the project’s visionary goal of creating habitat for more species, locking up carbon and improving water quality.”
