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The sun rising over a reef made of thousands of oyster shells
Sunset - Great Sandy Strait The sun setting over remnant shellfish reefs at the Great Sandy Strait, QLD © Megan Connell / TNC

Great Sandy Strait Shellfish Reef Restoration Project

Frequently Asked Questions

 

 

 

 

 

What is the Great Sandy Strait Shellfish Reef Restoration Project?

The Great Sandy Shellfish (GSS) Reef Restoration Project is an initiative by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to restore rock oyster reefs to the Booral coastline. The rock oyster reef at Booral is the most extensive, functioning remnant reef we know of in southern Queensland, but the reef is showing signs of degradation and loss.

Rock oyster reefs are critically important wetland habitats that provide many services to nature and people. Reefs provide homes, food and refuge for wildlife, and support healthy fishing and nature loving. Reefs also filter vast quantities of water, removing toxins, sediment and nutrients.

Globally, an estimated 85% of shellfish ecosystems have been lost due to extraction, pollution and general neglect, making them one of the most critically endangered marine habitats. Oyster reefs once covered thousands of hectares of Australia’s coastal waterways.

The goal of TNC is to help reverse the loss and to work with locals to restore shellfish reefs across Queensland and across Australia.

The GSS project is funded by the Australian Government and is part of Australia’s largest marine restoration initiative, dedicated to bringing shellfish reef ecosystems back from the brink of extinction.

The GSS project marks TNC’s twenty-fourth reef restoration project. We are experts at this work. We focus on creating the right conditions for oyster reefs to naturally regenerate. We apply proven methods developed over 25 years of experience bound within the international Society for Ecological Restoration’s principles and standards. TNC has successfully applied these methods across Australia and around the world,

The GSS project is in partnership with Butchulla Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (BNTAC), Fraser Coast Regional Council, Queensland Marine Parks, Booral locals and relevant local stakeholders.

Connections to Traditional Owners

Our project is located on Butchulla Sea Country.  The project is guided by the Butchulla Traditional Owners (through BNTAC) who provide cultural knowledge and collective memories of Great Sandy Strait region and advise our restoration work accordingly.

Through this project, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is also supporting BNTAC in the self-determined management of their Land and Sea Country. Through Healthy Country Planning, BNTAC is empowered to make informed, culturally grounded decisions that reflect their values, priorities, and responsibilities. This activity strengthens BNTAC’s capacity to assess activities that will happen on Land and Sea Country in a structured, community-led framework that considers:

  • Cultural values and heritage
  • Ecological and environmental priorities
  • Economic opportunities and risks
  • Threats to Country and community wellbeing

By investing in this planning process, TNC is supporting BNTAC’s ability to make decisions that are transparent, accountable, and aligned with their long-term vision for Country. This is a commitment to partnership and empowerment and improved management of Country.

 

 

Why oysters?

Rock oysters are known as ecosystem engineers. They build intricate reef-like structures that create surfaces, crevices, and hiding spots for a wide variety of marine life. Oyster reefs support greater biodiversity and abundance, making estuarine ecosystems more stable, resilient, and productive.

Beyond habitat creation, oysters offer a range of ecosystem services. They naturally filter water, improving water quality, and in some areas, they help protect shorelines from erosion.

 

 

Who is involved and how?

Ecologists – Scientists work together to decide where the best places are in the Great Sandy Strait to restore oyster reefs and decide how the rock foundations of the oyster reefs should be laid to attract wild oysters and other marine life.

Engineers – Specialists who assure the oyster reefs foundations provide a stable base for marine life.

Government regulators and technical advisors – Experts in ecology, biosecurity, regulation and Indigenous People come together as the project’s Technical Advisory Group. This selected group helps the project managers navigate the government regulations and advise the project on all aspects of its work—acting as a brains-trust for the project.

Project managers (The Nature Conservancy) – Coordinate all aspects of the restoration, research, monitoring and communications in collaboration with working teams.

Local community and key local stakeholder groups – TNC is a visitor to your area. We rely on the invitation and support of local people to do our work. Locals can be involved in learning about and champion oyster reefs and wetlands. They can participate in project activities and guide TNC to ensure we deliver projects that fit well with people, place and nature.

 

 

Who is The Nature Conservancy?

TNC is a global environmental non-profit non-government organisation working to create a world where people and nature can thrive. We’re proud to be very action-oriented in our approach to conservation. With more than 400 scientists working across 76 countries, we’ve been tackling some of our most important environmental challenges. In Australia, for the past 15 years, we’ve supported the conservation of around 130 million hectares of Australia’s lands and waters. Click here to learn more about our impact.

 

 

How much does this project cost and who are the funders?

Our Project has a budget of $2m. It sounds like a lot, but it’s not. Reef restoration projects involve exhaustive scientific studies, extensive community consultation and engagement, detailed engineering, complex planning approvals, construction of reef foundations and expert-level performance monitoring.

The GSS project is funded by the Australian Government’s Coastal Reef Restoration Program, which is an initiative aimed at improving habitat condition and water quality within the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchments.  The Burnett Mary Catchment is the southernmost GBR catchment.

 

 

Where are the restoration sites?

The project’s three restoration sites are in the mid-intertidal zone along the Booral shoreline. These areas are adjacent to Island View Drive, Ti Tree Road East and Sea Eagles Road, which are the access points to the sites. The sites are seaward of the mangrove forests and landward of the seagrass meadows. The sites are on bedrock or gravel sitting on bedrock.

 

 

What are we planning?

The process of oyster ecosystem restoration involves enhancing natural environmental processes which occur naturally in an estuary. Oysters are already found in the Great Sandy Strait growing on bedrock and on stone and cobble, which erodes from the adjacent escarpment.

In lower areas, oysters are being buried by sediment, which is oozing onto the reef. This sediment is coming from the Mary River and/or is being resuspended and transported by currents onto the Booral coastline. Rock oysters growing on stone and cobble, and on elevated bedrock, are elevated above the sediment level.

The project in essence will extend the stone and cobble fields already found at Booral into the mid-intertidal reaches. This zone is less impacted by sediment and is still within the growth band for oysters. The specific areas to be restored will be those assessed as having little current ecological value.

 

 

What are the restoration steps?

Step 1 – Plan, Plan, Plan

  • TNC’s project team of ecologists, engineering and restoration practitioners first determines if the estuary environment today is still suitable for restoring oyster reefs. They undertake extensive baseline studies, consult extensively with experts and stakeholders and develop a restoration suitability model for the project location. The model helps ensure the restoration location is the ‘best fit’ for both oysters and people.
  • The baseline information is then used to develop the restoration plan, which outlines the planned project activities in detail and explains how restoration will proceed and how risks will be managed and environmental damage avoided.
  • The restoration plan is submitted to various government agencies for review, input and approvals.

Step 2 – Sourcing local rock

  • Once all approvals are secured, the project team engages a suitably skilled and qualified construction contractor.
  • The contractor, using the project restoration plan, including detailed restoration drawings and specifications, sources rock from a local quarry to be used to expand the stone fields.
  • This rock we call the ‘restoration substrate’ and will be 100mm-500mm in diameter, with most rock around the 300mm size to match that found on site.
  • The contractor establishes the project loadout site, where rock from the quarry is delivered, and then uses smaller trucks to deliver the rock onto site along specifically selected accessways to minimise impacts.

Step 3 – Deploy the substrate into the intertidal zone

  • With TNC and engineering oversight, the construction contractor deploys the rock onto the intertidal zone at the selected restoration sites during low tide and configures the rock into a series of reef patches, which meet the specifications and design drawings provided.
  • Once on site, a small excavator moves the substrate into the required reef patch configurations. Reef patches avoid marine plants, remnant oyster reef and any other marine habitat that may be found. Some areas of a given site will first be prepared by temporarily relocating oysters away from where construction equipment will be used. Once work is complete, the oysters are then returned to area close to where they came from.
  • Reef patches are designed to avoid existing habitats, major drainage channels and low tide pools. They are also stable, do not exacerbate coastal erosion or impede the ability for people or nature to traverse the restoration site.
  • In some special areas, substrate will be placed by hand into existing stone fields to enhance those and make the fields more ecologically productive. These non-mechanised restoration areas are specifically dedicated for that purpose.
  • The construction phase is expected to last from 4 to 6 weeks depending on the weather. Work can only take place when the tide is low and if protected or endangered wildlife such as marine turtles or flocks of shorebirds are found on a project site, then construction must be delayed on that site until the animals move on.
  • Once the substrate is in place, wild oysters are expected to colonise the new reef foundations within 1 to 3 years and thus commence the restoration process. Over time, the oysters will build complex structures, attract other invertebrates like mussels, octopus and crabs, and become important refuges and feeding areas for marine wildlife.

This process of reef expansion, helps restore the remnant reef, expanding its footprint and resilience for the future.

Step 4 – Monitor, Evaluate, Report

Scientists, working with local scientific contractors, apply tried and tested monitoring systems to establish a baseline of data at and around the restoration sites. Scientists also identify a ‘target reference ecosystem’, which is a local example of a healthy reef against which comparisons can be made as the new oyster reef develops.

Once the reef patches are in place, post construction monitoring is undertaken to check that the reef patches are attracting oysters. Once this is confirmed, scientists then return periodically to monitor restoration success, but to also ensure the reefs are remaining stable, not causing any erosion problems or trapping wildlife. Local volunteers also help with this monitoring.

The results of monitoring are provided to government regulators and most importantly fed back to local stakeholders, the community and project funders by TNC.

The project team regularly evaluates the results, restoration and monitoring methods and project costs. Adjustments are made using adaptive management techniques. This ensures the team are using the most effective and efficient restoration methods.

 

 

What can I expect during the construction phase?

Just prior to construction, weeds will be cleared from the road reserves at the ends of Island View Drive and Ti Tree Road East by Fraser Coast Regional Council. This will allow machinery to enter the intertidal zone safely and efficiently.

At this time, a load out site will be established at the seaward end of Island View Drive. During construction, larger trucks will deliver rock substrate from the quarry to the load out site. From here, smaller machinery will be used to move the substrate through the intertidal zone onto site and to lay the substrate into reef patch configurations.

Accessways to and on the sites are specified to minimise impacts of vehicles on plants and wildlife. Vehicular movements will be monitoring daily.

Most construction activity will take place during low tide. Special care will be taken throughout the project to reduce impacts on the many species that rely on these important habitats.

Once construction is complete, contractors will clean up the site and revegetate the access points with appropriate native plants. The entire construction and revegetation process is expected to take approximately 6 weeks to complete subject to weather and the presence of protected or endangered wildlife, which will cause work to stop while they are present on site.

 

 

How does the ecosystem form and how long does it take?

The shape and mix of species in any given oyster ecosystem, or oyster reef, varies depending on the physical characteristics of the growing environment. Each oyster ecosystem is strongly influenced by tidal heights, the composition and shape of the intertidal zone, water flow characteristics and human interactions (level of extraction or interference).

Some oyster reefs respond to their location by growing upwards. Some stay low and spread out, forming beds or patches of oysters. Oyster reefs may be interspersed with patches of sandy sediments, seagrass, mangroves or rocky reefs.

Read below to discover how an oyster ecosystem grows:

Years 1 - 3: Rock placed in the intertidal zone to mimic existing reefs. Oyster larvae settle and grow on the base. Marine plants, other oyster species and invertebrates start to colonise. Fish and other species visit the site.

Years 3 - 5: Oysters mature and spawn. Second generation of oyster larvae colonise the rock and shell in the young forming ecosystem. Fish such as bream, flathead and stingrays regularly visit the oyster reef.

Years 5 - 10: Multiple generations of oysters now growing on the oyster reef. The oyster reef increases in size and productivity. A range of fish, invertebrates and marine plants now live permanently, or seasonally, on and around the oyster reef.

Years 10 onward: The oyster reef is a diverse, abundant and self-propagating ecosystem.

 

 

Is oyster restoration like oyster farming?

Oyster ecosystem restoration helps start the natural processes for wild oysters to colonise an area and form complex ecosystems. Ultimately, restoration aims to grow oysters to improve the natural environment, not to provide for human consumption.

Oyster farming is a specialised form of aquaculture (or mariculture) practice in which oysters are collected and raised under controlled conditions for the purpose of producing oysters for human consumption.

While both oyster restoration practitioners and oyster farmers share some common interests, restorers work to repair complex oyster habitats to their natural, wild state. Oyster farmers, however, use natural processes to produce a commodity that is marketable and sold to consumers under strict quality assurance protocols.

 

 

Can I eat oysters off the restored reefs?

There are no regulations preventing people eating wild oysters from the restoration sites. Removing even a few oysters though, directly impacts the oyster reefs and slows their recovery.

We encourage you to support your seafood and bait suppliers by sourcing quality assured and sustainably farmed oysters from them. In doing so, you support this project as well.

 

 

Do oyster reefs need management long-term?

Once mature, oyster reefs are self-sustaining. But they need space to flourish with minimal human disturbance. Long-term management of the oyster reefs requires site signage, and good local information and community behaviours, so that people don’t unintentionally damage the reefs but actually champion their importance to people but also to the wildlife that call them home.

 

 

What does this mean for me?

A healthier, more resilient Great Sandy Strait with a restored network of living, thriving oyster reefs that help to:

  • filter water,
  • offer protective nursery havens for young fish,
  • enhance biodiversity and fisheries productivity,
  • build the resilience of the ecosystem to human uses and natural impacts