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Speaker 1: Beating the bloom. We all want to do that. There

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Speaker 1: is a petition out now to go down that path.

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Speaker 1: The Nature Conservancy of Australia has put that out. Director

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Speaker 1: Ocean's Director from the Nature Conservancy is doctor Mikayla Demessa

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Speaker 1: and she joins me now, Mikayla, good evening, Thank you

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Speaker 1: for your.

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Speaker 2: Time, good evening, love it to be here.

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Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about what you hope to

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Speaker 1: achieve with the petition. How do we beat the bloom?

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Speaker 2: Sure, so it's not very well known, but South Australia

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Speaker 2: used to be an absolute hot spot for oyster reefs.

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Speaker 2: So in the eighteen hundreds around two thirds of the

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Speaker 2: coastline was with choco block with these the beautiful oysteriefs

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Speaker 2: ana native flat boister and they were they were so

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Speaker 2: useful that they were they were dredged out and eaten

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Speaker 2: and used as building material for a lot of a

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Speaker 2: lot of construction and the building of I guess the

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Speaker 2: New Australia, Southern Australia, and results they no longer there.

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Speaker 2: And the importance of these oysteries is that they eat

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Speaker 2: algae and in the case of this bloom, they'd be

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Speaker 2: a really great natural defense mechanism to keep things like

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Speaker 2: the Alga bloom in check. So we've been working in

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Speaker 2: South Australia for the last decade with the South Australian

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Speaker 2: Government and built four reefs already in the Gulfers and

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Speaker 2: Sincent and that includes Kangaro Island. But they're not nearly

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Speaker 2: at the scale that we need to really see that

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Speaker 2: ecological comeback that we would expect if we had more

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Speaker 2: in relation to the bloom. So what we're looking for

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Speaker 2: in our petition is really for everyone to I guess,

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Speaker 2: jump on board in terms of understanding the guests the

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Speaker 2: natural importance of oyster reefs in creating immunity against these terrible,

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Speaker 2: devastating bloom events.

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Speaker 1: So I suppose I suppose they were there the reefs

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Speaker 1: for all of time until we arrived and thought great

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Speaker 1: food source just on our doorstep. Were they far out?

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Speaker 1: They can't have been far out. I suppose if we

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Speaker 1: fished them out back in the day.

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Speaker 2: No, they were really really accessible, very close to shore.

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Speaker 2: So they were pulled out. They were they were dredged out, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: easily accessible, and I think because of that, Yeah, they

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Speaker 2: were very quickly exploited. It only took so let's see

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Speaker 2: around the eighteen forties when people settled, you know, in

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Speaker 2: numbers by the eighteen forties that were virtually functionally extinct.

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Speaker 2: Really that that is that's it's extraordinary because you know

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Speaker 2: the density of those reefs. So if you look at

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Speaker 2: the Great Southern Reef and where the oysters occurred, it

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Speaker 2: wasn't continuous, but the reef was bigger than the Great

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Speaker 2: Barrier Reef, and we've pretty much removed ninety nine percent

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Speaker 2: of that. So we've extracted all of those oyster reefs,

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Speaker 2: and just to sort of give an idea of what

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Speaker 2: they do, one little flat oyster, which will fit in

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Speaker 2: the palm of your hand, can filter through a bathtub

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Speaker 2: water every two days, so it's pretty much acting like

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Speaker 2: a kidney for the entire ecosystem and collectively cleaning all

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Speaker 2: the water. So if you remove them in time, you

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Speaker 2: can just imagine the impact has had on the ecosystem,

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Speaker 2: which is now just ripe. Once you have warmer waters

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Speaker 2: coinciding with things like the Bonnie upwelling, a few nutrients

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Speaker 2: coming out of out of rivers just has to be

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Speaker 2: that perfect storm where you don't have something like the

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Speaker 2: oysters in place, which are your natural defense to clean

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Speaker 2: the water and avoid something like that.

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Speaker 1: How big were they? And I suppose what there as

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Speaker 1: a reef, and I guess they would have died at

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Speaker 1: some stage so you get more then on top presumably,

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Speaker 1: But were they it's an oyster reef wide? Is it

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Speaker 1: ten meters wide? Twenty one hundred? Give us what's yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I had a picture.

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Speaker 2: For us, Yeah, sure, sure, So they were They looked

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Speaker 2: a little bit like coral reefs. They sort of stacked

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Speaker 2: on top of each other. So one oyster would die

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Speaker 2: and then another one would settle on the top. And

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Speaker 2: so they built up like a like a high rose

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Speaker 2: building over time, and then they would be hundreds yeah,

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Speaker 2: hundreds of meters wise. Okay, yeah, and you know connected

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Speaker 2: through there they have. They have quite an interesting life history.

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Speaker 2: So the oyster spawn and all the the eggs and

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Speaker 2: sperm fertilized in the water, and then they'll they'll then

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Speaker 2: once they're fertilized, they'll swim around and then settle this

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Speaker 2: battle settle, and they'll then grow into the into the

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Speaker 2: adult oysters, which generally are looking for other oysters to

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Speaker 2: to settle on. So that's how they build.

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Speaker 1: Their eaves and these were all the way up and

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Speaker 1: down the gulf on both sides, presumably around the corner

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Speaker 1: up and down the next gulf, and along the coastline

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Speaker 1: heading southeast and the other way to the west.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, about two thirds of the coastline was

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Speaker 2: chocolate lock with these with these with these oystery so

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Speaker 2: they're like, you know, they're like quite quiet water, so

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Speaker 2: they don't like to be sloshed around too much. So

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Speaker 2: they did favor parts of or parts of the of

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Speaker 2: the of the gulfs that were slightly less you know,

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Speaker 2: wild in terms of in terms of water, so the

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Speaker 2: upper the upper reaches and then in some cases on

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Speaker 2: the western edges, but a lot of the area was

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Speaker 2: covered with these with these reeks.

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Speaker 1: Incredible, So we is the government on board with repopulating

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Speaker 1: to that extent or half that extent, or or what

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Speaker 1: exactly you know.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, so the South Australian government has been I guess

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Speaker 2: a bit of a forerunner in Australia in terms of

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Speaker 2: recognizing how important these oyster reefs are and was pretty

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Speaker 2: much one of the first states to start to start

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Speaker 2: building reefs recognizing the importance of this marine restoration. But yes,

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Speaker 2: I think the idea is everybody would like to build

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Speaker 2: to bring those reefs back, and oyster reefs have been

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Speaker 2: proven as a practical, scalable solution. I think the thing

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Speaker 2: is that which is going to be very high, and

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Speaker 2: as yet we haven't thought about I guess ress being

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Speaker 2: our living infrastructure, and the costs have to be equivalent,

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Speaker 2: you know, towards the way we I guess apply funding

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Speaker 2: to roads and other infrastructure that we value. We don't

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Speaker 2: quite think of it that way. So the amounths of

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Speaker 2: finding that we have allocated towards environmental solutions has been

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Speaker 2: very low comparative to infrastructure. For example, a road. I've

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Speaker 2: just reading the other day in twenty seventeen a review

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Speaker 2: of how much it is to build a kilometer road.

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Speaker 2: Just guess how much a kilometer road costs.

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Speaker 1: Half a million, five million, five million.

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Speaker 2: It's extraordinary, So it's expensive. I mean, you know, roads

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Speaker 2: are complicated. You need to put them in the right places,

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Speaker 2: they need to drain properly, they need to be enduring

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Speaker 2: e ceteria research of it. You know that's the case

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Speaker 2: for our living infrastructure as well. We need to build

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Speaker 2: them properly, and you know we need to cost accordingly.

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to tell the government I could do it. Three. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that's that's fascinating. Do you believe, Mikhayla, if we had

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Speaker 1: the reefs in place, this algal bloom would have disappeared

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Speaker 1: almost as quickly as it appeared.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it would have actually got to the

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Speaker 2: point that it has. So you know, you're always going

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Speaker 2: to have You're always going to have algall blooms around.

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Speaker 2: That's that's part of nature. But when things get out

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Speaker 2: of balance, you know, that's when when you start to

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Speaker 2: see things explode. And if we had a natural regulator

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Speaker 2: of algal populations in the water with the with the oysters,

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Speaker 2: then we would never have got to this point in time. No. Actually, interestingly,

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Speaker 2: in New York they were having some harmful algal blooms

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Speaker 2: in an area called Shinnecock Bay, which is in Long Island,

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Speaker 2: and they put some shellfish reads. So it wasn't with

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Speaker 2: some oysters, but then it was also scollops, and within

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Speaker 2: three years they started to see their algal blooms disappearing

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Speaker 2: in some parts of the of the bay where they

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Speaker 2: have this this yeah, this marine restoration, So we know

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Speaker 2: in concept, can it can work? It just yeah, it

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Speaker 2: has to be scaled.

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Speaker 1: And I suppose to. For South Australia where we have

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Speaker 1: an issue of sand erosion along the metro coastline particularly, well,

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Speaker 1: if you think about West Beach and you know how

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Speaker 1: how the sand had virtually gone along that part of

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Speaker 1: the beach, we sand card up and down the coast.

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Speaker 1: Would it potentially help with that as well having oystery.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely so yeah, you can. You can pile

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Speaker 2: on the benefits. I think when you build, you know,

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Speaker 2: there are coastal engineers. You know, you're essentially building that infrastructure.

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Speaker 2: So what it can also do, if it's designed in

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Speaker 2: the right way, yes, is to stop that sand shifting around.

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Speaker 2: You know, can't spend millions of dollars in conting sand

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Speaker 2: back and forth. And if you do place the reefs

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Speaker 2: in the right spot, you know, you get the trifector

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Speaker 2: of the ecology benefits, the coastal erosion benefits, and then

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Speaker 2: also you know all the other bits that come along

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Speaker 2: with that, like extra fishing and healthier ecosystem. Yeah, it

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Speaker 2: all gets down to just clever design.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Does it encourage fish life having oyster reefs? I

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Speaker 1: mean with the fishes once they get back out in

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Speaker 1: their boats and the bloom hopefully one day passes and

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Speaker 1: they can go fishing again. Is it something that would

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Speaker 1: encourage fish stocks.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, So we've we've done the numbers, so we've had

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Speaker 2: we've built about twenty twenty one reefs around Australia and

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Speaker 2: we've for a few of those actually gone out and

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Speaker 2: collected information on how they have looked after a few years.

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Speaker 2: And what we find is within one to two years

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Speaker 2: we've got four times the amount of fish on those

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Speaker 2: reefs than in areas adjacent where there are no reefs.

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Speaker 2: So they're definitely you know, there are real sources of

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Speaker 2: homes for fishes, but they also have ripple effects because

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Speaker 2: they tend to stabilize the sediment. They also create a

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Speaker 2: great environment for seagrass to grow and sea gross is

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Speaker 2: again a fantastic environment for juvenile fish. So you get

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Speaker 2: this ripple effect through the ecosystem that you know, not

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Speaker 2: only brings back the water filtration and those benefits we

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Speaker 2: want to see, but also brings back the whole ecosystem

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Speaker 2: in itself and along with that great extra fishing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, fantastic. Well, we've got to get them back. That's

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Speaker 1: simple as that. So if people can help by going

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Speaker 1: to your website signing the petition. What's the is it

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Speaker 1: just beating the bloom? Would a Google search of that

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Speaker 1: make it come up?

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Speaker 2: Yes, the Google sid definitely would. Otherwise you could look

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Speaker 2: at TNC dot org dot au love your designment petition

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Speaker 2: and yeah, write your local, your member and please support

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Speaker 2: the campaign. You know, it's very exciting to actually have

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Speaker 2: I guess a solution in you know, in our in

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Speaker 2: a position where you know it's not looking very good.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, and we know what the answer is. That's

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Speaker 1: the crazy part. Let's just do it. Yeah, Doctor MICHAELA. Domessa,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time, fascinating discussion.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Good evening, then, all the best.

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Speaker 1: Oceans Director the Nature Conservancy. So look, the easiest you

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Speaker 1: can either google the Nature Conservancy and find that and

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Speaker 1: that'll take you to the petition, or just type in

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Speaker 1: beating the Bloom and petition perhaps add that to your

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Speaker 1: search and that'll bring you to no cost involved. You

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Speaker 1: just sign it and obviously they're going to present it

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Speaker 1: to the government to say let's get oyster reefs back.

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Speaker 1: And they used to be there