Close-up of a man holding a Pacific oyster, Port Stephens. Photo: Ben Millington ABC
Original story by David Claughton, ABC Rural
Scientists in NSW have one card left to play to identify the cause of massive oyster deaths in Port Stephens.
A mysterious illness is wiping out the Pacific oysters, while leaving the smaller Sydney Rock variety growing unharmed.
Port Stephens is the second biggest production area in NSW.
There are about 60 growers and Pacific oysters make up 25 per cent of the production there.
Ian Lyall, from the NSW Department of Fisheries, says scientists at Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute have been looking for a cause since oysters starting dying 12 months ago, but haven’t found any signs of disease.
“The final thing we can do is what’s called a transmission trial, set up to exclude a transmissible agent and that could take a few months.”
Mr Lyall says pollution could be the other cause of oyster deaths.
“Researchers are working closely with the NSW Food Authority to analyse water quality and the Environmental Protection Agency to look at pollution, but we have not come across a single agent or group of agents that are causing these mortalities.”
He says growers are very upset.
“This is a very valuable crop and the loss of income is really impacting on the growers who focus on Pacific oysters.”
There is some assistance available, but the State Government has encouraged growers to diversify into different species and sources of income, saying that it can’t continue to help after a series of disastrous disease outbreaks and weather events in recent years.
Growers in Wallis Lake, the state’s biggest oyster production area, have stopped taking oysters from Port Stephens to limit the spread of whatever is affecting them.
Growers on the South Coast are unaffected.
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