Ben D
12-10-2015, 11:56 AM
Just a heads up to let everyone know about an exciting national initiative, aiming to protect and restore shellfish reefs in Australian estuaries, that is being launched under the National Environmental Science Program.
Shellfish (oysters, mussels etc) are ecosystem engineers that form the "lungs" of healthy estuaries by providing filtration of the water, uptake of nutrients, stabilising shorelines and food and shelter for fish and crabs. Reefs of shellfish used to be abundant in estuaries around Australia, however, they have mostly been lost since European settlement, due mainly to declining water quality, and historic overfishing. Their loss has lead to flow on issues leading to problems with reduced fisheries productivity and less healthy estuaries.
Overseas experience has shown restoration of living shellfish reefs to be much more effective than artificial reefs for improving water quality and fisheries productivity. Because of this, Australia's first shellfish reef restoration project has recently started in Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne, in a collaboration between fishing clubs, fisheries scientists and environmental groups http://www.natureaustralia.org.au/2014/08/melbournes-lost-reefs/
In Moreton Bay, the Pumicestone Passage Fish Stocking Association in conjunction with Sunfish Nth Moreton, Indigenous groups, local scientists and catchment management authorities are all pushing for a similar pilot reef restoration project in Pumicestone Passage. See http://restorepumicestonepassage.org/ for more information. Other similar projects are also now being planned in NSW, SA and WA using recreational fishing monies originally intended for fish habitat, artificial reefs and so on. In QLD, funding has been harder to come by to date, but we hope that this will change once decision makers realise there is potential to reap the same environmental, social and economic benefits that have accrued from similar projects overseas.
A national estuary restoration website is being developed to link all of these projects together and will be live soon, providing a one stop information portal for anglers who would like to know more about what is being done in their local area (perhaps you or your club or group might even be thinking of contributing time to reef development in your area ??). I'll provide the link to the new website once its up and running. Until then I encourage all anglers to read up on the information from the existing websites listed above so they can better understand what we've lost from our estuaries, and what we can do to try to get some of that magic back...
Shellfish (oysters, mussels etc) are ecosystem engineers that form the "lungs" of healthy estuaries by providing filtration of the water, uptake of nutrients, stabilising shorelines and food and shelter for fish and crabs. Reefs of shellfish used to be abundant in estuaries around Australia, however, they have mostly been lost since European settlement, due mainly to declining water quality, and historic overfishing. Their loss has lead to flow on issues leading to problems with reduced fisheries productivity and less healthy estuaries.
Overseas experience has shown restoration of living shellfish reefs to be much more effective than artificial reefs for improving water quality and fisheries productivity. Because of this, Australia's first shellfish reef restoration project has recently started in Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne, in a collaboration between fishing clubs, fisheries scientists and environmental groups http://www.natureaustralia.org.au/2014/08/melbournes-lost-reefs/
In Moreton Bay, the Pumicestone Passage Fish Stocking Association in conjunction with Sunfish Nth Moreton, Indigenous groups, local scientists and catchment management authorities are all pushing for a similar pilot reef restoration project in Pumicestone Passage. See http://restorepumicestonepassage.org/ for more information. Other similar projects are also now being planned in NSW, SA and WA using recreational fishing monies originally intended for fish habitat, artificial reefs and so on. In QLD, funding has been harder to come by to date, but we hope that this will change once decision makers realise there is potential to reap the same environmental, social and economic benefits that have accrued from similar projects overseas.
A national estuary restoration website is being developed to link all of these projects together and will be live soon, providing a one stop information portal for anglers who would like to know more about what is being done in their local area (perhaps you or your club or group might even be thinking of contributing time to reef development in your area ??). I'll provide the link to the new website once its up and running. Until then I encourage all anglers to read up on the information from the existing websites listed above so they can better understand what we've lost from our estuaries, and what we can do to try to get some of that magic back...