By Margaret Maccoll
Noosa Council has agreed in principle to commit $1.2m toward the second phase of Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation’s Bring Back the Fish (BBF) project, which is one year into a three-year pilot to establish oyster reefs in the Noosa River and shows mixed results.
Under the deal Council will partner with environmental organisation The Nature Conservancy (TNC) which will match the $1.2m contribution, manage the next phase of the project and seek to source a further $1.2m investment.
Council’s environmental services manager Craig Doolan said initial results of the pilot project showed “natural oyster recruitment occurring on the reefs … of the desired oyster species” and “increased fish numbers around the trial reefs”.
However, at Council’s Ordinary Meeting Cr Ingrid Jackson said a USC one-year monitoring report revealed there was a “lack of evidence … of the current reef design forming a stable matrix”, a lack of “detailed results from fish studies” and “key areas where targets for success have not yet been achieved and would be better assessed after another year of monitoring”.
Cr Jackson did not support the deal saying the decision was being made without sufficient information, without sufficient evaluation of the oyster reef trial, without financial analysis and without due process.
“A decision to fund this proposal now pre-empts public consultation and finalisation of the Environment Strategy and Noosa River Plan, which are both yet to be approved by Council,” she said.
Mr Doolan said under the proposed partnership $1.3m would be spent on installing oyster reefs, $1.1m would go toward engaging various scientists, project planning, and community liaison. And a further $1.2m, when sourced, would be used “to expand the installation of oyster reefs”.
Mayor Tony Wellington said “this next phase of the BBF project will enable us to put the research and findings from that pilot project into substantially larger oyster reefs”.
“The Nature Conservancy have plenty of experience with this sort of conservation work, having built reefs in other countries, and also having created 24 hectares of new reef structures as part of their Great Southern Seascapes Project that takes in four Australian states,” he said.
In the initial $1.5m project a University of the Sunshine Coast research team led by Professor Thomas Schlacher sited 14 oyster reefs each containing nine biodegradable coconut mesh bags filled with oyster shells in the river.
USC marine ecologist Dr Ben Gilby said the project expected that over several years spat or oyster larvae naturally occurring in the river would settle on the created reefs and grow with the structure securing itself to the riverbed.
Dr Gilby said oysters would improve the river’s diversity by filtering the water and providing both food and habitat for fish and other invertebrates.
The BBF project was conceived by The Thomas Foundation (TTF) and Noosa Parks Association (NPA) following an expert workshop convened by TNC.
A $1.2m donation from TTF to be contributed from TNC has kick started the second phase of the project.
David Thomas of Noosa Heads refused to comment on the donation from his foundation.
Council staff will draft a partnership agreement to go back to Council for approval.
