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Wynnum Fishing Club - March News


Drop Bear

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Hi, 

Just an update on how we are going with the oyster reefs. It is still early days for the project but we are making headway. We are having a meeting on the 25th of march so if you would like to get involved let me know and I will send through the deets :)

This is a bit of a blurb about the project from Craig Copeland from OzFish Unlimited. Its pretty long sorry but gives a good overall picture.

Basically if you want better fishing in Moreton Bay we need to improve the oyster reefs. Imagine catching snapper from wynnum foreshore again :) 

 

Moreton Bay Reef Action

Oyster Reefs drive fisheries production and maintain water quality.

Over 96% of this habitat has been lost from Moreton Bay

There is a great opportunity for increasing fish numbers and drive big social and economic improvements if they are restored.

OzFish Unlimited aim to establish an extensive network of engaged and capable recreational fishers targeting large scale restoration of shellfish reefs in Moreton Bay. 

Already the OzFish Unlimited Pumicestone Passage Chapter have been involved with shellfish reef restoration trials in the Passage while recently formed chapters at Wynnum and on the Gold Coast want to contribute with their own shellfish reef restoration projects with assistance from OzFish, our corporate sponsor BCF and local councils and NRM groups. 

Recreational fisher role – shell recycling, oyster gardening, restoration and monitoring.

OzFish Unlimited volunteers are recreational fishers who know their local area intimately due to their on-water activities and they are enthusiastic about putting back into the sport they love. There are more than 405,000 people who fish recreationally in Moreton Bay and they are ideally placed to advise during project identification and planning phases and provide significant in-kind contributions during project implementation as well as citizen science opportunities during post-project monitoring.

Cost

There are a number of tasks required to deliver Moreton Bay Reef Action. These include;

·         Site assessment and prioritization

·         Plan preparation, development assessment and approval

·         Organising shell and live oyster supply as well as reef construction

·         Monitoring and communication

·         Seeking corporate and other financial support

The cost of this project will be approximately $480,000 over three years with OzFish Unlimited attracting a minimum of $150,000 from corporate and philanthropic sources. The future delivery of the project will depend on the success of this action and continuing corporate, philanthropic and volunteer support.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Importance of Shellfish Reefs

Bivalve shellfish (oysters and mussels) are important ecosystem engineers in estuaries worldwide.  Like corals, reef forming shellfish can form the base structure for entire ecosystems, providing hard subtidal and intertidal reef structure, food and habitat for invertebrates and fishes, as well as vital functions such as filtration of water, nutrient uptake and shoreline stabilisation. Historically, wild oysters supported important fisheries worldwide, but today natural shellfish reefs are rapidly declining.  Scientists estimate that globally, over 85% of shellfish reefs have been lost due to human impacts that adversely affect estuaries and inshore marine ecosystems.

Losses in Moreton Bay and the Gold Coast Waterways

Archaeological and historical records indicate the existence of extremely abundant populations of reef forming shellfish (mainly Sydney rock oysters) in the coastal bays and estuaries of Southern Queensland prior to European settlement.  In Southern Queensland the locations where the largest numbers of shellfish reefs were historically observed and documented by early Europeans were inside the sheltered embayments of Moreton Bay and the Great Sandy Straits. 

The major populations of subtidal oyster reefs were found in the Southport Broadwater, and in southern Moreton Bay between Russell Island and Stradbroke Island.  Further to the north, shellfish reefs were also found near Amity Point on the inside of North Stradbroke Island, in the lower reaches of the Brisbane River, around the foreshore at Redcliffe, and throughout Deception Bay. Perhaps the largest quantities of oysters in Moreton Bay were found inside Bribie Island in Pumicestone Passage, where Sydney rock oysters were reported to occur both intertidally and subtidally down to around 4 meters below the low tide mark in benthic oyster reefs up to 1.5 metres deep. 

In the late nineteenth century, while inspecting the Great Sandy Straits, forester Jules Tardent described “the astronomical quantity of seed-oysters, stretching for miles, which has to be seen to be believed. 

The South East Queensland oyster industry peaked production in 1981, however due to problems related to siltation and development of the catchments, , declined precipitously throughout the 20th century to less than 10% of its 1891 peak by 1980.  Today, subtidal shellfish reefs are functionally extinct in Pumicestone Passage and throughout most (if not all) of Southern Queensland.  Studies have shown around 96% of vertical zonation of Sydney rock oysters has been lost in Pumicestone Passage over the last 125 years, due to declining water quality, siltation, eutrophication and disease. This 96% loss of important fisheries nursery habitat explains in part the loss of fisheries production within Moreton Bay for species such as snapper and bream.  Fortunately, experiments conducted in Pumicestone Passage have shown it is possible to restore oyster reefs in Moreton Bay, provided appropriate interventions are made. For more information see

http://restorepumicestonepassage.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Diggles-paper-v122-final.pdf

http://restorepumicestonepassage.org/ 

 

Shellfish Reef Trials

The trial Shellfish Reef Restoration in Pumicestone Passage is the first time anywhere in the world that restoration of subtidal Sydney rock oyster reefs has been attempted.  Several different trial modules were deployed in Pumicestone Passage in December 2017, including dead oyster shells in wire cages, dead oyster shells in patch reefs, a mixture of live and dead oyster shells in cages and on patch reefs, and a biodegradable starch plastic matrix. Monitoring of the performance of these reefs over time will determine the strengths and weaknesses of each type of restoration procedure for subtidal reefs, informing future restoration efforts. 

For more information on the trial reef modules, see    

http://restorepumicestonepassage.org/map/

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I had a great little run out on the bay yesterday with Ben Diggles.

We checked out a stack of places. He feels that the oyster reefs will need to be sub tidal. Preferably in 3m of water and out of main shipping channels. We found some interesting spots with hard bottoms, current flow and not much mud. There are lot of oysters on the Norther side of Green island in the shallows and quite a few likely spots near there.

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12 minutes ago, christophagus said:

@Drop Bear great work mate.

Myself and my ute are ready for shell collection and transport purposes

Thanks mate,

We need somewhere to put them first but there are plenty available. John from Shuck It can supply 4-5 cubic meters per week. He would want us to buy plastic tubs for him to put the shells in and take away. We would need to drop these back to him. I will try and see if we can have a spot to give them a bit of a rinse at our recycling facility. 

This would give us 4 - 5 large steel cages every week. We will not be able to use all of these at the beginning. I hope that we can help supply Gold Coast and Bribie OzFish Chapters too if they need. We could work out an agreement. 

I also spoke to Ben about how best to handle the shells. He has found a supplier of steel cages for quite cheap. These would fit lots of our needs. They will be easier to fill. Able to be moved to oyster lease quickly and not much mess or carrying. We can just dump them on the lease with no base or stuff required. The dept of environment will like that we can remove them if needed. They will be easy to pick up and put back down when we want to move them to the site we need. 

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Great to hear its all coming along and look forward to getting involved. However I work every sunday so haven't been able to make meetings. I generally have a few hours here and there during the week free though so keep me in mind for anuthing needed then. Also happy to use my boat for monitoring or scoping sites 

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