Offshore mussel farm collaboration wins at the Aquaculture UK Awards

The University has been working with Offshore Shellfish Ltd for well over a decade
Â鶹´«Ã½ and Offshore Shellfish Ltd at the 2025 Aquaculture UK Awards
The Â鶹´«Ã½ and Offshore Shellfish Ltd picked up the prestigious Collaboration Award at the 2025 Aquaculture UK Awards.
The award, sponsored by UK Agri-Tech Centre, recognised the 13 years of collaborative research undertaken by the University and Offshore Shellfish on their offshore mussel farm in Lyme Bay, off the coast of Devon.
They have also worked closely with other partners through the Ropes to Reefs FISP project that has looked over the past three years at the broader ecosystem benefits of shellfish farming and the spillover effect into the local fisheries sector.
The work has demonstrated that offshore mussel farms could have wider environmental benefits, with mussels grown on the farm’s ropes helping to reintroduce shellfish populations on the seabed that had been lost as a result of bottom-towed fishing.
The farm has also yielded benefits for other marine species with, for example, the number of Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus) around the farm increasing by more than 300% in the space of four years compared to other areas of Lyme Bay.

Collaborating with industry has been a critical element of our research ever since we started working in the Lyme Bay area almost two decades ago.

But our work with Offshore Shellfish Ltd has provided a perfect demonstration of how human activities, carried out in the right way, can provide sources of food and other benefits while supporting a healthy marine environment more widely. This award is a great reward for our continued collaborative approach.

Emma SheehanDr Emma Sheehan
Associate Professor of Marine Ecology (Research)

As farmers, we rely on a healthy environment and a functioning marine ecosystem, and I believe we have a responsibility to understand the impact we create.

We studied the seabed and established a baseline before developing the offshore mussel farm, and have seen over the duration of our partnership with the Â鶹´«Ã½ that not only do we do no harm, but we actually produce significant benefits.
John Holmyard
Managing Director, Offshore Shellfish Ltd
 
 
 

Sustainable Aquaculture and Fisheries

Research and expertise underpinning the sustainability of marine and freshwater food production
 
 
Getty lyme bay

Monitoring the recovery of Lyme Bay

Restorative offshore aquaculture

Long-term ecological monitoring of offshore aquaculture

Fish ropes

Ropes to Reefs FISP

 
 
 
 
 

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