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

                                by monitoring changes to the
                                condition of coir mesh over time
                                from the ten photo-quadrats,
                                which are collected twice per
                                year to assess changes in the
                                cover of benthic invertebrates at
                                each oyster reef restoration
                                unit.
3. Community use and enjoyment of the declared Fish Habitat Area
Oyster restoration units do     Maintain records of community     Annual reporting         Complaints: within 3 months of
not significantly impair        feedback, evidence of             of all complaints,       receiving each complaint, an
community use and               vandalism, and vessel strikes     cases of willful         investigation (including interview
enjoyment of the declared       on the trial oyster reef          vandalism, and           with the complainant if possible) will
Fish Habitat Area, particularly restoration units. Records will   instances of             be conducted to determine whether
fishing activities.             be comprehensive and include,     vessel strike            complaints are directly related to
                                as a minimum set:                 received for the         oyster reef restoration units.
                                1) the number and type of         three-year trial         Potential response actions will be
                                complaints received (also, to     period.                  provided to the Department of
                                allow the Department to gauge                              Agriculture and Fisheries in the
                                the success, any positive                                  annual report. If complaints persist,
                                comments should also be                                    and grievances exceed the direct
                                provided);                                                 benefit of oyster reef restoration, the
                                2) the type, nature, and severity                          particular oyster reef restoration unit
                                of any acts of willful                                     will be removed as soon as
                                vandalism; and                                             practical, and prior to the 4th
                                3) the type and severity of any                            anniversary post deployment.
                                vessel strike.
                                                                                           Willful vandalism and vessel
                                                                                           Strikes
                                                                                           If there are consistent and / or
                                                                                           significant cases of willful vandalism
                                                                                           to, or instances of vessels striking,
                                                                                           the oyster reef restoration units, the
                                                                                           cause of the impact will be identified
                                                                                           and used to guide the delivery of a
                                                                                           community education campaign
                                                                                           aimed at reducing these types of
                                                                                           incidents. If the education campaign
                                                                                           does not reduce cases of willful
                                                                                           vandalism and / or instances of
                                                                                           vessel strike, the oyster reef
                                                                                           restoration units that are
                                                                                           responsible will be removed prior to
                                                                                           the 4th anniversary post
                                                                                           deployment.
4. Other potential effects:
Oyster reef restoration       Map the area of marine plant           Annually for a        Where monitoring shows that there
units do not cause a          habitats (seagrass, mangroves) in      minimum of three      are substantial, and consistent,
decline in the extent of      the immediate vicinity (i.e. with a    years, or until any   losses of marine plants, or erosion
marine plants within a 50     50 m buffer) of each oyster            failed restoration    of estuarine shorelines, in the
m radius of the restoration   restoration area, using high-          units have been       immediate vicinity of oyster reef
units, and are not            resolution GPS (cm scale) and          removed.              restoration units, and these
attributed to erosion of      field-validated aerial imagery                               changes can unambiguously be
adjacent shorelines or        (sourced from Nearmap). Monitor                              attributed to oyster reef restoration
other ambient                 changes in the composition                                   activities, the problem units that are
environmental impacts.        coverage and condition of                                    responsible for such impacts shall
                              seagrass within 50 m radius                                  be removed (as soon as practical
                              around the oyster reefs. Map the                             and prior to the following annual
                              location and condition of estuarine                          reporting anniversary).
                              shorelines that occur in the
                              immediate vicinity (i.e. with a 50 m
                              buffer) of each oyster reef, using
                              high-resolution GPS (cm scale)
                              and field-validated aerial imagery
                              (sourced from Nearmap).




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