Today is a very special day for oyster lovers: World Oyster Day! This year, we want to shine the spotlight on some of the amazing work that our friends at OceanWatch Australia do in the world of oysters, highlighting the ways they're using oysters to improve marine ecosystems, as well as their positive impact on oyster aquaculture practices.

What is OceanWatch?

Broadly, OceanWatch Australia Ltd is a national not-for-profit environmental company that works to advance sustainability in the Australian seafood industry.

OceanWatch's key activities involve:

• enhancing fish habitats and improving water quality in estuaries and coastal environments;
• working with industry and local communities to minimise environmental impacts;
• introducing industry and communities to sustainable technologies and behaviours.

Since its establishment in 1989, OceanWatch Australia has managed and administered a broad range of successful projects to improve environmental practices, protect threatened marine species, reduce by-catch, introduce sustainable technologies, change behaviours and restore important marine habitats.

Sydney Fish Market is a passionate supporter of Oceanwatch; we assist them with funding and special projects, and host their office on our site.

Here's what they've been working on in the world of oysters:

Living Shorelines

For over seven years, OceanWatch Australia has been working to provide an alternative tool for shoreline erosion, by turning old oyster shells into living shorelines.

The program has been a fantastic opportunity to develop a process through which old shells (which are essentially a waste product) can be treated, bagged and used to enhance the natural environment. It also provides universities with research opportunities and has been an excellent avenue to engage local communities in environmental work.

Shellfish reefs once formed the backbone of many temperate and subtropical estuaries, and whilst small populations continue to exist in most bays and estuaries, these are only a small fraction compared to the numbers seen pre-European settlement. In New South Wales, researchers estimate that over 99% of natural shellfish reefs have been lost due to pollution, sedimentation, disease, habitat loss, and degradation from coastal development.

To restore these crucial habitats, OceanWatch developed a process with engineers and ecologists to construct “living shorelines”. The “living shoreline” concept started by taking old oyster shells and bagging them in coir (coconut fibre) mesh bags. These are then strategically pegged on eroded shorelines, providing a home for a multitude of other marine animals, and a surface on which free-swimming oyster larvae can settle. Oysters are fantastic in dropping wave energy where it causes erosion.

Over time, the oysters can grow together to form a reef, and the coconut fibre breaks down. By using 100% natural, biodegradable materials, OceanWatch can ensure that these living structures help to support, rather than degrade the surrounding ecosystem.

How cool is that? To learn more about Living Shorelines, click here.

Oyster Aquaculture: Best Practice Guidelines

OceanWatch is also focused on improving industry practices wherever they can, to ensure that the commercial seafood industry has as little impact on the environment as possible. In the realm of oysters, this has meant developing best practice video tutorials for oyster farmers, to ensure the industry's long-term success and provide access to guidelines around responsible farming.

Oyster farmers in NSW currently operate across 30 estuaries, producing around 66 million oysters every year. It is vital that oyster farmers understand and strive to operate under evolving best-practice farming standards, not only to build community support, but also to maintain and improve the ongoing health and productivity of NSW's valuable coastal waterways.  

The goal of OceanWatch's video project was to ensure that all oyster farmers in NSW have an understanding of what best practice looks like so that they can adapt their own farming systems if needed, and raise the bar of the whole industry. These improvements in practice benefit the health and productivity of coastal estuaries and help build the social license of an industry operating on publicly owned land and water.

The videos covered topics like biosecurity, seagrass protection, good neighbour policies, waste management, and environmental stewardship. Check them out here!

That's just a taste of OceanWatch's fantastic work... They've also currently got a plastic and oyster shell recycling project in the works, which will involve timber tipping subsidies as well as feasibility studies regarding different uses for plastic and oyster shell waste.

If you're keen to learn more about OceanWatch's fantastic work, visit their website.

Happy World Oyster Day!