Millions of baby oysters have been shipped from Tasmania to offer hope to New South Wales growers whose crops have been decimated by QX disease.
Key points:
- QX disease was first detected in Port Stephens oyster farms last year
- Tasmanian growers have shipped millions of QX-resistant Pacific oysters to shore up stocks for affected farmers
- It will still be 12 months before the cash flow returns to farmers affected by QX
The parasite, which essentially blocks an oyster’s gut and “starves it to death”, was first detected in Sydney rock oysters in Port Stephens last year.
It has crippled local businesses and had a broader impact on the state’s $50 million oyster industry.
“Tilligerry Creek farmers have suffered some pretty significant losses,” said Port Stephens oyster grower Matt Burgoyne.
“Mortality of up to 90 percent of their stock, from their baby stock to ready-to-sell stock. It’s really devastating.
“As of February this year, the parasite appears to have spread rapidly throughout Port Stephens and there are really no areas, harvest areas or cultivation areas, that are free.”
Port Stephens is known for producing Sydney rock oysters, but deliveries from Tasmania will offer growers the opportunity to grow a different species – the Pacific oyster.
Matt Burgoyne’s farm has been operating in Port Stephens for over 60 years. (Provided by XL Oysters)
Tasmanian Pacific oysters will also go to growers in the Hawkesbury region.
“[They are] disease resistant, they are not susceptible to the QX parasite and so at the moment we see it as our only way forward to keep the farms viable and marketable in the future,” Burgoyne said.
Pacific oyster grower Ellen Duke is a third generation grower from southern Tasmania.
After hearing the Port Stephens QX outbreak, he said it really hit home.
“These growers were going through such a tough time … the floods and now QX,” he said.
“We really feel their pain because we went through something very similar [Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome] in Tasmania.”
Welcome, but no quick fix
Millions of baby oysters, or spats, have been shipped in what Ms Duke said was just the first batch.
But it would take about 12 months to grow to a salable size.
It will take 12 to 18 months for these baby oysters, or spat, to grow to a marketable size. (Provided by: Yumbah Aquaculture)
“Farmers are still facing a year without income,” Burgoyne said.
“The mood in Port Stephens is very gloomy.
“We have generational oyster farms, farms that have farmers who are ready to retire and reap the rewards of many years of hard work, and a lot of that right now has lost value and seems to have come to nothing “.
Pacific oysters mature twice as fast as Sydney rock oysters and Ms Duke said many farmers produced both.
“What the Pacific can do, hopefully, is give them some risk diversification,” he said.
Research is ongoing to attempt to breed QX-resistant Sydney rock oysters, but little progress has been made to date.
Burgoyne remained hopeful that the region would once again produce its high-quality oysters in the coming years.
“We’re proud in NSW to be able to grow Sydney rock oysters and obviously it’s an oyster that’s a point of difference and has traditionally always been sought after,” he said.