Enclosure 6 - ESP Letter

                                                                                    Ecological Service Professionals
                                                                                                              Sustainable Science Solutions


Oyster Area         Calculation                        Areal Surface Area                    Assumptions/Exclusions
                                                                                2
(i.e. outside                                          aggregation – 10,999 m ;              of bare rock.
historical oyster                                      Bedrock/Rock with oyster
                                                                            2
lease area)                                            aggregation – 3,805m ) =
                                                                2
                                                       14,804 m

F) Proposed         Proposed area for Resource         Surface area of the RAA =             Assumes that oysters will recover
                                                              2
Restoration         Allocation Authority is the        1440 m                                naturally to cover the full area of the
Area and            maximum predicted extent that                                            RAA.
Resource            restored oyster beds would
Allocation Area     reach given best estimates of                                            Actual proposed direct development
(RAA)               biomass accumulation. This                                               footprint for restoration units is
                                                                                                     2
                    allows for suitable buffers to                                           <200m
                    surrounding habitat.
                    Restoration footprint per site
                        2                      2
                    (12m ) x 16 sites = 192 m
                                 2
                    RAA = 90 m x 16 sites



Proportion of       A) There is currently              The percentage of likely area         Assumes that oysters grow naturally
                                  2
estimated           4,153,000 m of                     occupied by oyster habitat within     to cover the full area of the RAA.
historical and      accommodation space within         the accommodation space
current oyster      the historical oyster leases.      historically harvested, relative to
habitat relative    Conservatively, if oyster          RAA area requested (F/A x 100)
to proposed         habitat historically covered       = 0.7% - 3.5%
Resource            between 1 to 5% of the
Allocation          accommodation space of             The percentage of estimated
Authority           Noosa estuary = 41,530 m to
                                                 2     annual historical live oyster
(RAA) area          207,650 m
                                2                      harvest area relative RAA area
                                                       requested (F/B x 100) = 17.5%
                    B) Annual historical live oyster
                    harvest area – the estimated       The proportion of dead or buried
                    area of live oysters required to   oyster habitat recorded from the
                    meet peak live harvest =           estuary relative to the RAA area
                             2
                    8,241 m .yr
                                 -1                    requested (F/C x100) = 8%

                    C) Current extent of buried or     Total area of degraded living
                    dead Oyster beds/rubble            oyster and rubble habitat + RAA
                    measured in Noosa River            relative to the likely area of
                    within historical oyster leases    accommodation space occupied
                    = 16,850 m
                                2                      by oyster habitat in similar
                                                       estuaries ((D+F)/A x 100) =
                    D) Current extent of degraded      10.6% to 53.2%
                    living Oyster
                    beds/rubble/aggregation =          Based on these conservative
                               2
                    20,647 m (a potential benefit      estimates, the proposed RAA
                    of natural restoration of oyster   area will not exceed the
                    beds through the proposed          estimated size of oyster
                    project is that it may support     habitat that existed
                    regeneration of these areas)       historically in the estuary
                                                       (even with existing degraded
                                                       live oyster habitat included)
                                                       and will not results in habitat
                                                       substitution. Note that natural
                                                       oyster habitats particularly
                                                       beds and reefs are not
                                                       functionally or ecologically
                                                       equivalent to oyster
                                                       aggregations on hard
                                                       engineered surface and
                                                       should not be considered as
                                                       such.




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