2015-11-10 Planning & Organisation Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                               10 NOVEMBER 2015


   As the commercial and recreational fisheries increased, the Noosa oyster fishery was in
     quiet decline, becoming commercially extinct by the 1930s.
   While oysters have greatly declined from historical levels, data on other commercial
     fisheries suggest that landings were highly variable from year to year, a feature that
     remains in the contemporary fisheries.
   The lack of information on historical fishing effort, and in some cases a lack of data to the
     species level, makes it almost impossible to draw any conclusions about changes in
     population size from the historical record. Moreover, some of the commercial stocks
     exploited within the Noosa region are migratory; species such as mullet are exploited along
     the coast from New South Wales and north.
   However, time series data are also available for recreational fishing activities within the
     Noosa Estuary, and suggest a decline in catch rates for the most popular estuarine species
     throughout the 20th century.
   These data depict a gradual decline rather than any sudden change which could be related
     to a number of factors including urban development, loss of fish habitat (including oyster
     beds), and increasing fishing pressure (recreational and commercial).
   Given the time series ends in 1980, it is unlikely to be due to changes in targeting
     behaviour of fishers, which largely occurred a decade or so later with the introduction of
     bag limits and the increasing popularity of catch and release fishing.
   The historical record points to significant changes in the Noosa River and Lakes: Oysters –
     once plentiful – are commercially and functionally extinct; commercial and recreational
     fisheries still exist, but historical records backed up by interviews with local fishers, depict a
     more productive system formally than exists today.
   The reasons for these changes are difficult to resolve, but in addition to over a century of
     reasonably heavy exploitation, the Noosa River has been subject to development pressure
     since the 1970s, and as a result has been greatly altered from its early state.
   While historical data cannot provide ‘quantitative estimates of change’ for the Noosa
     Estuary fisheries, they provide insights into how productive the system once was, and
     provide the beginnings of an evidence base upon which more informed decisions can be
     made.
   The historical data collected presents a picture of a highly productive estuary. Despite
     fundamental changes to the river mouth; development pressure and population growth the
     Noosa Estuary still supports a popular recreational fishery and commercial quantities of
     many species the river historically provided, with the exception of the oyster fishery.
   It is uncertain how the loss of oyster beds from the Noosa Estuary affected the wider food
     chain. Studies from other locations suggest that oysters play an important role in the
     provision of food and shelter for fish and other aquatic species, and contribute to improved
     water quality.

More about the historic oyster reefs

The historical research reveals that few records remain of the oysters and oyster fishery that
once existed in the Noosa River.

However occasional accounts exist in fishery inspector reports and popular articles which provide
insights into the past abundance of oysters and the commercial industry. These accounts include
the following observations:
   In 1876 Lake Weyba was described as the ‘oyster ground of the Tewantin people’.
   Large mounds of oyster shells within the Tewantin area were of such significant they were
     known as the ‘Lions of Tewantin’.


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