Our Clew Bay Project

When you drink Green Ocean Coffee, you are helping to restore the ancient oyster beds on the west coast of Ireland in Clew Bay, Co Mayo. For generations Clew Bay has been a thriving oyster fishery providing employment and food for communities along its shore.

Working with Clew Bay Oyster Co-Op we have started restoring old oyster beds in protected marine environments by preparing the sea floor to allow the successful reseeding of oyster and seagrass.

The restoration process involves spreading a layer of shell, called culch, thinly on the sea floor that allows the oyster seed to attach itself and grow into mature oysters. Once this process starts the oysters will multiply expanding into a reef that allows seagrass to propagate. This in turn provides an ideal spawning habitat for juvenile fish and invertebrates.

Each bag of Green Ocean Coffee results in the restoration of 1 square metre of sea floor. The total area that is due for restoration in this current phase is 10 hectares. It is located east of Dorinish Island at the co-ordinates 53.489° N, 9.396° W