Putting oyster reefs back into Oyster Harbour
Restoring Albany’s lost shellfish reefs
The warming of the fresh salty air that has swept in from the Southern Ocean off the south coast of Western Australia for millennia, signalled the time of the year that Minang Noongar people returned to the coast. Closer to the sea, they made use of its many marine resources after a winter inland, sheltering from the harsher weather and living off the land. In the bays near Albany, they made stone traps to catch fish as the tide went out, adding seafood to a diet of bushmeat, birds’ eggs and plants.
When English explorer George Vancouver became the first European to visit the area in 1791 he was so impressed by the amount and size of the oysters growing here that he named it Oyster Harbour.
Unfortunately, early European settlers found so many uses for the oysters that by the late 1800s they remained associated with the harbour in name only. The combined effects of over harvesting, poor water quality and disease meant the oyster reefs of Oyster Harbour were no more.
With the loss of the reefs came a further decline in natural values such as water quality and fish stocks.
This sadly familiar scenario has been repeated across southern Australia, however, thankfully it’s not too late to do something about it.
Replicating our reef restoration success
As we’ve done elsewhere across southern Australia, since 2016 TNC has been restoring the lost shellfish reefs of Oyster Harbour so that once again the local area, people and marine environment can benefit from all the services a thriving reef provides. This includes a boost to fish productivity, improved water quality and increased overall biodiversity in the harbour.
This project is a part of The Nature Conservancy’s national Reef Builder initiative to bring shellfish reef ecosystems back from the brink of extinction — for the benefit of both people and nature. The national Reef Builder project is currently restoring shellfish reefs in 13 sites across Australia.
For Albany this represents an opportunity to continue to build on our achievements through learning from our work to date and delivering both conservation and economic benefits locally.
Quote: Alex Hams
Our partners and supporters are all extremely important if we are to successfully restore Oyster Harbour's lost shellfish reefs.
The first step in restoring the reefs was to successfully demonstrate that native oysters could be collected from Oyster Harbour, spawned in the local hatchery, deployed onto new reef substrate and reach the minimum level of survival required to recover a shellfish reef. With the help of the Recreational Fishing Initiative Fund and Recfishwest, we achieved this in 2016.
With the pilot phase complete, throughout November and December 2019 we built over 800m of oyster reefs in Oyster Harbour.
The reefs are constructed with a base of hundreds of tonnes of limestone rocks deployed from a barge. On top of this, we scattered one million hatchery-reared juvenile Australian Flat Oysters grown at the local Albany Shellfish Hatchery.
The young shellfish have settled and continue to grow on the limestone, establishing themselves in their new homes and attracting all the other species that join them in creating a fully functioning shellfish reef. Months later, we're already seeing fish and other marine life at the reef.
Helping us along the way is a growing band of enthusiastic volunteers.
Quote: Lucia Quearry (2nd from right)
It is very satisfying to see that implementation of catchment management & sustainable farming practices has improved the health of Oyster Harbour to the point where the restoration of seagrasses & flat oyster reefs can be viable.
Oyster Harbour Photos
Quote: Moss Kilby-Glencross
The ocean’s complex and diverse nature has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. I am excited to be involved and I see this initiative as an incredible opportunity to help restore an ecosystem on the brink of extinction.
Future plans for Oyster Harbour
With the ecological knowledge and community support obtained during the earlier stages of the project, we hope to take the project to a whole-of-system scale—constructing somewhere between five and 10 hectares of new reef! At this scale we will begin to make a measurable difference to fish abundance, water quality and the productivity of Oyster Harbour.
It’s going to take time and commitment from lots of people throughout the community, but we have the experience and determination to successfully restore the shellfish reefs of Oyster Harbour for the benefit of people and nature.
If you live in the Albany area and would like to be involved in the project, contact us at australia@tnc.org.
Please help support our shellfish reef restoration across Australia.
Just $25 could buy 850 baby oysters to put into our reefs.
