Have you ever thought about what happens to the shells from a bowl of mussels or a plate of oysters?In most parts of Australia, there’s a high chance they will end up in landfill. But for the last two years, restaurants and seafood wholesalers in Geelong, south-west of Melbourne, have been donating their shells to […]

From fished out to fresh again, the Angasi oyster is returning. Back in Australia’s colonial past, early settlers were often keen to either establish or find a “little piece of England” so, when they discovered the Angasi oyster, they saw how similar it was to the flat oysters they were used to back at home. […]

The scene is set for Victoria’s only native oysters to start their work of cleaning the waters in Port Phillip Bay and attracting more fish after 360 tonnes of limestone rubble was laid on the seabed. Led by The Nature Conservancy, the Port Phillip Shellfish Reef restoration project is one of the state’s largest bay restoration programs. […]

THE people running this recycling project are not after plastic bottles or aluminium cans — they want oyster shells. Moreton Bay Regional Council has agreed to enter into a five-year community lease with aquatic animal health experts, Digsfish Services, to help their groundbreaking work to restore shellfish reefs and improve water quality in the Pumicestone […]

HUNDREDS of thousands of oysters will be spread on the sea floor near Geelong under a major project aimed at restoring shellfish reefs The Nature Conservancy is focusing its rehabilitation efforts on Wilson Spit, which is south of Avalon, and a site off St Kilda. The group has started works on stage two of its […]

The Port Adelaide Shellfish Restoration Project Group received an Australia Day Award for their restoration efforts in Port River. They were awarded for promoting inclusion of young people through community-based citizen science opportunities. Local partnerships have been developed with schools and local businesses on the Lefevre Peninsula to facilitate the monitoring of trial shellfish restoration […]

Port Phillip Bay’s only native oyster is making a comeback – and the humble shellfish will help clean and filter the bay’s murky waters. The project kicks off just weeks after Port Phillip Bay’s beaches were declared off limits for days in January due to stormwaters flushing dangerous levels of excrement and detritus into the […]

Chugging up the Pumicestone Passage in the tour boat, all of us from the conference watched the bloom of jellyfish go by. The pale blue animals crowded the 35-kilometre waterway between the Sunshine Coast and Bribie Island. Also blooming was Lyngbya, large clusters of toxic blue-green algae. All these creatures take advantage of the mix of […]

A marine biologist is trying to restore lost reefs in the waters off south-east Queensland, by supplying locals with bags of native oysters. Ben Diggles from Restore Pumicestone Passage said the area used to have large sub-tidal reefs, but many had been lost through urban development and increased sedimentation of the waterways. He now wants […]

Everyone’s heard of the Great Barrier Reef, but did you know Brisbane was built on the back of a thriving reef, that’s disappeared into the history books? Now there is a community driven program to restore the reef and improve Moreton Bay’s water quality, fish stocks and seagrass in the process. When marine biologist Dr […]