2019-01-14 General Committee Agenda - Attachment 3 to Item 2 - Monitoring of Noosa River Oyster Reefs Nov 2018

      Table 2 Noosa oyster reef restoration monitoring schedule as agreed to by all stakeholders
      in RAA 2016CA0575, and including mark-ups from Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
      dated 6 January 2017.
Performance objective             Monitoring method                    Frequency              Corrective action where
                                                                                              performance objective is not met
1. Oyster Restoration Unit location stability
Oyster restoration units       Visually inspect the stability of       Every 6 months         A professional coastal engineer
remain within the designated   oyster reef units and record the        for a minimum of       shall be consulted to suggest
Resource Allocation Areas.     precise GPS position (± cm              three years            remedial action for any oyster reef
                               scale), and size of each unit           Additional             restoration units that collapse, or
                               (following international best           monitoring will be     shift by > 1 m.
                               practice: Baggett et al. 2015).         conducted within
                               Use GIS software to contrast            2 weeks of             Any oyster reef restoration units that
                               the position, footprint, size and       substantial rainfall   move outside the designated
                               area of oyster reef restoration         events (i.e. events    Resource Allocation Areas within 3
                               units between monitoring                that exceed 50-        years will be removed. A
                               events and assess any potential         year Average           professional ecologist will confirm
                               movement.                               Rainfall Intervals).   the cause of the shift.

2. Natural Recruitment Processes
Oysters and other sessile        Quantify the recruitment of           Every 6 months         We will contrast: 1) the rate of
benthic invertebrates recruit    oysters and other sessile             for a minimum of       oyster recruitment; 2) the cover of
to reef restoration units to     benthic invertebrates to reef         three years,           oysters and all other sessile benthic
establish a biogenic matrix,     restoration units, and measure        unless otherwise       invertebrates; and 3) the stability of
which binds oyster shells in     changes in the cover of oysters       detailed within        the biogenic matrix among oyster
place, prior to degradation of   and other sessile benthic             corrective actions     reef restoration units and between
coir material.                   invertebrates over time                                      monitoring events.
                                 (following international best
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The Key Performance              practice: Baggett et al. 2015).                              Any restoration units that fail to
Indicators for this are:                                                                      meet the Key Performance
1.) Oyster recruitment:          The monitoring methods for                                   Indicators within 3 years will be
successful recruitment of        each Indicators are:                                         removed.
oyster spat in at least 1 out of 1.) Oyster recruitment: marked
the 3 years (i.e. 33% of the     oyster shells will be fastened to                            If major damage occurs to the coir
time) post deployment            the outside of restoration units.                            mesh of any oyster reef restoration
(following international best    These shells will be harvested                               units before a stable biogenic matrix
practice of 40%: Baggett et al. at regular intervals (15 oyster                               has formed, and loose oyster shells
        1
2015). ;                         shells per location on each                                  are being lost from the structure, it
                                 event – i.e. 5 shells per unit)                              will be repaired in-situ by hand
2.) Cover of oysters and         and the density and size of                                  weaving. Any such repairs will be
other sessile benthic            recruits recorded;                                           conducted carefully, and by hand, to
invertebrates: an upward                                                                      ensure that there is no damage to
trend in the cover of sessile    2.) Cover of oysters and other                               established areas of biogenic
benthic invertebrates growing    sessile benthic invertebrates:                               matrix.
on restoration units; and        photographs of ten quadrats (25
                                 cm x 25cm), distributed in a
3.) Establishment of stable      stratified random design, across
biogenic matrix: structural      each oyster reef restoration unit
rigidity of oyster restoration   will be taken at regular intervals
units, denoting a stable         to quantify the change in cover
biogenic matrix after 3 years    of oysters and other sessile
post deployment, which is        benthic invertebrates (Baggett
                                              1
sufficient to hold oyster shells et al. 2015) .
in place.
                                 3.) Establishment of stable
                                 biogenic matrix: assess the
                                 structural integrity of each
                                 oyster reef restoration unit and
                                 monitor the degradation of coir
                                 material. Structural integrity will
                                 be quantified by measuring the
                                 proportion of oyster shells (from
                                 10 shells that are selected at
                                 random at each location), which
                                 can be removed easily by hand
                                 manipulation. The rate of coir
                                 degradation will be measured


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