By Grace Jones | posted on January 24, 2020
NEARLY one million juvenile Australian Flat Oysters were released onto newly constructed reefs in Oyster Harbour last week near Albany as part of the Oyster Harbour Reef project.
The Nature Conservancy’s project manager Alex Hams said releasing the natural shellfish was the final stage in the project and was a very satisfying moment for him.
“The community has worked hard to get us to this stage,” he said.
“It’s been a long process to identify the best sites to re-create the reefs, lay down the 1000 tonnes of limestone bedrock over 1,650sqm of the harbour’s seafloor and now adding the living oysters.”
The Oyster Harbour Reef project is part of The Nature Conservancy’s National Reef Building Project that aims to rebuild 60 reefs in six years across Australia.
If achieved, it will make Australia the world’s first nation in the world to recover a critically endangered marine ecosystem.
Projects in Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay and South Australia’s Gulf St Vincent have already been completed with others just getting underway near Adelaide, Noosa, Perth and Mandurah.
Mr Hams said Oyster Harbour would now have a future of thriving oyster reefs once more, which would bring a range of benefits including improved local fish stocks, cleaner water and boosted local economic activity.
“These million young oysters have been grown at the Albany Shellfish Hatchery,” he said.
“They’re settled onto recycled sea shells that were cleaned and prepared with the assistance of local volunteers.”
A community forum will be held at the UWA Albany Campus on February 6 to give people the opportunity to find out more about the project and ask any questions they might have.
Those interested in attending should register their interest by contacting Mr Hams at [email protected] or by calling 0421 456 708 by February 4.
