2021-09-13 GC Agenda - Item 11 - Attachment 1 - Noosa Oyster Project Annual Report 2

Waterwatch
TNC is also partnering with NICA to record water
quality information at the restoration sites.

NICA volunteers led by Bruce McConkey have been
busy collecting baseline water quality information for
the Tewantin restoration site.

Other restoration sites will be added to this data set
in the coming months and ultimately a valuable
monitoring output.




Hatchery partnership
TNC is working with the Bribie Island Research Centre (BIRC) in a new project, which will spawn a handful of adult rock
oysters (called ‘brood stock’) under controlled conditions in tanks and settle the oyster larvae onto the project’s cured
oyster shell (called ‘cultch’). The oyster larvae attach to the oyster shell and form oyster ‘spat’. The oyster cultch set
with oyster spat is called ‘seeded oyster cultch’. An oyster seeding event is called a ‘set’. A set takes 2-3months to
orchestrate.

The seeded oyster cultch is then collected from BIRC and deployed onto the oyster reef patches to help kick start the
restoration process. Oyster seeding acts as an insurance policy against highly variable natural oyster recruitment. The
seeded oyster cultch is also used to grow oysters in community-managed oyster gardens.

For the hatchery and oyster release, TNC will comply with the requirements of the Queensland Government health
protocol for the movement of live bivalve molluscs. TNC is working closely with DAF and BIRC to ensure compliance
with the protocol.

For the pilot phase, the project will use approximately 1.5 tonnes of seeded oyster cultch (one set). The cultch will be
hand placed into voids in the oyster reef patches at a density of 2.5kg/metre squared over 50 percent of each patch
area. Between 200-500kg of seeded oyster cultch is provided to oyster gardeners for further grow out of the oyster
spat before release onto the oyster reef patches. A second set will be required for full restoration in 2022.

The TNC-BIRC partnership is new and cutting edge. It is involving many personnel, as spawning rock oysters for
restoration purposes is highly technical and has not been undertaken before. Even though TNC would typically partner
with the private sector to undertake the hatchery work, there are few commercial shellfish hatcheries in South East
Queensland and none with the current capacity to support oyster ecosystem restoration. This raised a considerable
challenge for the project as TNC sort to engage the commercial sector, but the sector was not able to support.

The outcome, however, is welcome. The TNC-BIRC partnership will support the Noosa project, aligns with the
Queensland Government’s strategy for marine habitat restoration and will deepen the Queensland Government’s
involvement in delivering on that strategy. The partnership will also benefit the rock oyster aquaculture industry
throughout Queensland, as TNC’s support of BIRC has helped reinvigorate BIRCs investment in oyster research and
industry development.




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