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

Monitoring criteria 3- Community use and enjoyment of the declared fish
habitat area
Performance objective: Oyster restoration units do not significantly impair community use
and enjoyment of the declared Fish Habitat Area, particularly fishing activities.

Monitoring method: Maintain records of community feedback, evidence of vandalism, and
vessel strikes on the trial oyster reef restoration units. Records will be comprehensive and
include, as a minimum set:
    1. the number and type of complaints received (also, to allow the Department to gauge
       the success, any positive comments should also be provided);
    2. the type, nature, and severity of any acts of wilful vandalism; and
    3. the type and severity of any vessel strike.

Frequency: Annual reporting of all complaints, cases of willful vandalism, and instances of
vessel strike received for the three-year trial period.

Was the performance objective met? Noosa Council holds the data / information on any
complaints from the public. We did not identify any willful vandalism of the reefs, but we did
identify several instances of boat propeller and anchor strikes in the November 2018
monitoring event.

Supporting Evidence
Noosa Council is the designated contact for comments regarding the oyster reef restoration
project in the Noosa River, and of how this project affects the use and enjoyment of the
declared fish habitat area by the community. This is clearly stated on the signage at each
oyster reef restoration site (Figure 22).

We identified some damage to oyster reefs during the monitoring events (summarized in
Table 6). During the monitoring event in May 2018, only one reef required repairs. In
November 2018, most reefs required repair, and some coir bags were unrepairable. It is
likely that the majority of damage to the oyster reefs is caused by being struck by boat
propellers (especially at sites where bags were torn), and/or poorly placed or dragging boat
anchors (especially at sites where bags were torn and/or moved from their position on the
reef). During the November 2018 monitoring event, four of the reefs were also badly fouled
by fishing line and/or abandoned crab pots. This fishing gear was removed from the reefs
and disposed of. Combined, this damage resulted oyster spat necklaces being impossible to
retrieve from some reefs (see monitoring criteria 2, Table 5).

Members of the USC team have conducted several surveys on the fish fauna associated
with the oyster reefs in the Noosa River, beyond the monitoring events detailed here. In
association with these surveys, team members have taken note of the number of reefs
where fishing activities have been occurring (Table 7). Whilst this is simply a snapshot view
of the types of activities taking place around the reefs, it is indicative of the potential damage
occurring to the reefs. The key observation is a general increase in the number of fishing
boat at the reefs with time since installations. This is likely due to 1) the general public
becoming increasingly familiar with the locations and benefits of the reefs, 2) media reports
of the positive results regarding fish assemblages coming to light, and 3) the timing of
September school holidays.

Whilst we did not identify any acts of willful vandalism of the oyster reef restoration units
during our monitoring events, many marker buoys (placed on the corner of the reef units; a
compulsory condition of the development approval) were missing during monitoring events.
These were immediately replaced by the USC team. Some buoys were, however, removed
from sites the night after being reinstalled, thereby indicating very regular removal of reef
hardware by members of the public at some sites. This lack of buoys on the corner of the
oyster reefs is likely a contributor to some of the reefs being hit by boat propellers etc. No


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