Oyster seed have been reared on Walney Island since the early 1980’s, an extension of a South East of England oyster fishery company founded in 1883 that was breeding oysters to re-stock its beds in Whitstable, Kent.

The company developed the former salt lagoons in the North West of England to rear seed for itself but quickly became a source of oyster seed for farms in the U.K., France and most notably for the rapidly expanding Irish oyster industry.

With the help of sand & gravel workings and over 40 acres of lagoons adjacent to Morecambe Bay the site has developed into what is almost certainly the largest oyster nursery in Europe.

In 2000 after around 20 years of successful production and sales of top quality oyster seed from Walney Island Seasalter (Walney) Ltd was formed to run the hatchery, nursery and on-growing operations which had grown in the North West.

Meanwhile the pioneers of mollusc culture technology Seasalter Shellfish (Whitstable) Ltd as they are now known remain in Kent, they are probably the world’s leading consultants on marine algae production and hatchery technology, headed by John Bayes they still work closely with us all here at Seasalter (Walney) Ltd.