2018-08-07 P&E Agenda - Attachment 1 to Item 3 - Noosa Biosphere Reserve 10 Year Periodic Review

                                                                             Noosa Biosphere Reserve - Periodic Review 2018




thought to be the result of a number of factors, including population pressure, agricultural and urban
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development, overfishing, loss of critical fish habitat and changes in the ecosystem. The BBTF project
is a multi-year, multi-partner, multi-strand project aimed at restoring fish stocks in the Noosa River by
halting soil erosion from the upper reaches in the Kin Kin area of the Noosa hinterland, and repairing
riparian zones. The project has several components:

BBTF - Oyster Reef Project – This project is a partnership between the NPA, TTF and the USC to
place a trial of 14 oyster reefs (artificial) in the Noosa River to provide a structure for oysters spat to
settle on and provide food and habitat to encourage fish growth and diversity. In October-November
2017, 15 large coconut bags filled with oyster shells were placed at eight different sites around the
Noosa River in an attempt to attract oyster larvae and seed new oyster reefs. The bags were
constructed by the USC using world-class methodologies. In order to identify the best sites for the
artificial reefs, sampling of fish life in the lower Noosa estuary was undertaken at 125 locations (using
GoPro cameras) to establish baseline information of fish distribution. The oyster reefs will be monitored
for 3 years by the University. A link to the project can be found here:
http://noosabiosphere.org.au/posts/bringing-fish-life-back.




Photo: NBRF, Dr Ben Gilbey (USC), Attaching oyster shells to coconut fibre bags

BBTF – Encouraging prawn stocks – This project is a partnership between the UQ, Murdoch
University, the NPA and TTF. The project is focused on research associated with prawns in the Noosa
River which are at a fraction of their historic levels. Little historical evidence is available on the causes
with the following being listed as possibilities:

•      Overfishing (insufficient adult stocks to provide the next generation)
•      Poor water quality reducing larval prawn survival (low plankton food)
•      Ror water quality affecting early life of prawns (pollutants)
•      Sediment pollution including run-off from catchments, and

59 2015, Thurstan, R. Historical Ecology of the Noosa Estuary Fisheries (Report prepared for NSC, The Nature
Conservancy, TTF), University of Queensland



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