This is how they are using oysters to stop global warming

A few days ago we said that 55,000 oysters were about to invade the Mar Menor and, as strange as it may seem, it is good news. It is about the first step of a project of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography to recover the flat oyster in the largest lagoon in the country and, at the same time, introduce a natural biofilter that contributes to solving the dead end in which that area is.

And this is just one example of something really curious: for years, oyster farming has been claimed as (perhaps) the (only) “agricultural” industry that is good for the global environment.

And it’s not a ’boutade’: we have data. A few days ago, Nature magazine published a very interesting analysis of life cycle in Irish oyster farms. From there we can extract numerous data on its ability to reduce “environmental and climate pollution”: for every ton of oysters, 3.05 kilos of nitrogen, 0.35 kilos of phosphorus and about 70 kilos of carbon are fixed.

All aquaculturists they know that oysters are “ecosystem engineers.” They filter water, reduce turbidity, eliminate problematic components and facilitate the robustness of habitats and boost biodiversity. That is to say, there is no doubt about the local benefits of this type of exploitation.

The news is, in any case, that this contribution also goes beyond the local.

And is it? Compared to terrestrial livestock farming, bivalves usually have a low carbon footprint in relation to their protein density. In fact, according to the analysis we were talking about, the footprint per ton is very manageable and a good part of it is offset by the mineralized carbon of the shells.

If they manage well, of course. Because, if we look at the raw data, as a global climate solution, oysters are a modest strategy. In the end, carbon balances depend of the specific site, the management of the bivalves, the reuse of shells and, of course, the energy used throughout the production chain.

Therefore, when we talk about “potential to fight climate change” we must keep two things in mind. The first is its ability to show that we can build another food industry.

The second is to show that the impact of the things we do goes beyond what we are able to see directly. In the case of oysters, we have to take into account that their impact on water quality and biodiversity is not only powerful and cost-effective; but rather contributes to stopping climate change indirectly.

Good news beyond the specific data. That’s the summary: if oysters can change the playing field; If they can push us, even an inch in the right direction… welcome.

Image | Visual Animation

In Xataka | The Mar Menor is so bad that scientists only see one solution: put 60 million oysters in there