THOUSANDS of oysters are set to be released into the Solent following a successful revival.

Up to 10,000 oysters which have been held in cages at six captive sites at Hamble Marina are set to be transferred to the Solent sea bed.

The operation will take place at a secret location in a bid to protect their numbers.

Meanwhile, a second batch of 10,000 oysters will be placed into the cages to continue the process.

Morven Robertson, the projects coordinator said the batch which is set to be released has spawned producing millions of larvae.

She added that each oyster can release up to 1,000,000 larvae during one reproductive cycle.

Solent Oyster project is being undertaken by the Blue Marine Foundation and could see the revival of the multi-million pound industry and with it the creation of hundreds of jobs.

The Solent was once the largest oyster fishery in Europe, with more than 400 boats catching up to 15 million of the shellfish every year.

But stocks were decimated by a combination of dredging, disease and over-fishing, resulting in the collapse of the industry in 2013.

TV naturalist Ben Fogle has also thrown his weight behind the project and said that "Restoring the native oyster would be essential to the large scale degradation of our oceans."

The first 3,500 oysters will be reintroduced to the Solent next week.